TOUR 
 
 THROUGH PARTS OF 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 AND 
 
 CANADA. 
 
JVMKS WlllriNf:, rRINTKll, IlKAIIimT llOlSr, STUANP. 
 
TOUR 
 
 THROUGH PARTS OF 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 AND 
 
 CANADA. 
 
 BY A BRITISH SUBJECT. 
 
 LONDON : 
 LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1828. 
 
.037 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 As the contents of the following Letters, 
 relate to a portion of the world not very 
 frequently visited by British Travellers, it 
 has been thought that the novelty of the 
 subject may perhaps compensate for the 
 deficiencies of the style ; and if my endea- 
 vours to do justice to the many estimable 
 qualities of the American citizens, or the 
 assertion that their prosperity is a source 
 of just pride to the Mother Country, shall 
 tend to strengthen those bonds of mu- 
 tual good-will between the two Nations, 
 which are rapidly succeeding the ani- 
 mosities of the revolutionary struggle ; I 
 shall consider my late excursion has been 
 useful, as well as highly agreeable. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Voyage — Entrance of the Hurlson' — Quarantine Regulations — 
 Custom-House Annoyances — Restrictions on Aliens • . . .page 1 
 
 LETTER IL ^ 
 
 New York — Sliip-Building — Inhabitants and Customs — Good 
 Feeling towards Britain — Descendants of Dutch — Irish Residents 
 — Paper Money , . . 10 
 
 LETTER in. 
 
 Steam-Boats — Public Coaches — Philadelphia — Baltimore — Hotels 
 and Mode of Living — Washington City — Slaves — the Consti. 
 tution 21 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Hudson River — Passengers in Steam-Boats — -Albany — Cohoes 
 Falls — Erie Canal — Mohawk River — Utica — Roads — Trenton 
 Falls — Value of Land — Produce and Labour 41 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Indians — Meals when Travelling — Discipline of Jails— Lakes — 
 Freemasons — Rochester — Dwellings — Law of Inheritance — 
 Falls of the Genesee River , 57 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Ridgeway — Settlers in the Wilderness — Lewlston — Buffalo— 'Lake 
 Erie — Ohio — Yankees — Mr. Owen's Settlement — Complaints of 
 Agriculturists — Laws — Little Cheerfulness 78 
 
VIU CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Falls of Niagara — Tumulus of Skeletons — Late War — Anecdotes- 
 Indian Warfare 96 
 
 LETTER VIIL 
 
 Niagara Town — York — Lake Ontario — Kingston — Rapids of St. 
 Lawrence — -Error in fixing Boundaries — Causes of Discontent in 
 Upper Canada — Montreal — River Richelieu — French Canadians 
 — Constitution of Canada 108 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Lake Champlain — Irish Emigrants — Plattsburg — Sir G. Prevost — 
 Lake George — Massacre by the French in 1767 — Saratoga — Re- 
 flections — Class of Emigrants who succeed best 126 
 
A TOUR 
 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 VOYAGE— ENTRANCE OF THE HUDSON — QUARANTINE REGULA- 
 TIONS — CUSTOM-HOUSE ANNOYANCES — RESTRICTIONS ON 
 ALIENS. 
 
 New York, April 30, 1827. 
 DEAR , 
 
 Rambling as have been my habits, I really felt 
 at some loss, when selecting the American packet 
 to convey me across the Atlantic. They are all 
 in truth such fine vessels, varying in size from 350 
 to 500 tons, and with such excellent accommoda- 
 tions for eating and sleeping, that a less fastidious 
 man than myself might well be puzzled : I fixed 
 however finally on the port of Liverpool, in pre- 
 ference to those of Havre and Cowes; and we 
 embarked — a motley crew of passengers. 
 
 Each dormitory arranged round the *^ salon 
 
 B 
 
a manger" has two births in it! It is a kind of 
 latticed box, with just sufficient room to stand 
 and wash between the beds and the door ; and 
 I was especially careful to seize on the upper 
 coffin for my resting-place, because, in case of 
 sea-sickness, the cascade is sometimes impelled 
 by the rolling of the ship over the face of the 
 unlucky sleeper below. 
 
 At first, what a lovely deep blue the unfathom- 
 able waters of the great ocean assume; but very 
 speedily the charming monotony of sea and air, 
 and air and sea, begins to grow tedious. Eyes 
 are strained round the horizon for a new object; 
 and some even brave the dangers of fines and 
 falls, by cautiously creeping up the shrouds and 
 through lubbei^'s-hole, to enjoy a better look-out. 
 Shouts of *' A sail— a sail,^' then cause even the 
 miserable vomiters to rush on deck, with cries of 
 ^^ Where — where?" Alas ! it is only a Portuguese 
 man-of-war; a sort of small animated blubber, 
 which raises or lowers at will its pale lilac-coloured 
 bladder to the winds. 
 
 Four times a-day did the well-covered table of 
 this packet groan under a variety of dishes, con- 
 taining flesh, fowl, and pastry; and as often 
 did the majority of those with weak stomachs 
 quit their lairs for the feast. The sea air, tliey 
 said, gave them an appetite ; and well it might, 
 for they had all the pleasure of mastication with- 
 
3 
 
 out the trouble of digestion. How I pity Helio- 
 gabalus, for not having tried the pleasurable 
 sensations of a sea voyage ! If he could have seen 
 the delight with which some of my companions 
 gorged the good things,, and quaffed the wines and 
 other beverages they perhaps were not always in 
 the habit of regaling on^ he must have envied their 
 capabilities, and lauded their ardour : yet strange 
 as it may seem to you, I did not observe, at the 
 end of the voyage, much difference in the bulk of 
 my jovial acquaintances; their faces were plumper, 
 and their swallows distended their cravats a little, 
 which were all the ill effects, as far as they were 
 concerned, ofeating out the value of their thirty-five 
 guineas' passage-money, in about as many days. 
 
 How many laughable accidents I could tell 
 you, caused at our meals by a sudden lurch of 
 the vessel ! One good-tempered little man in 
 particular, who was all back, except t^vo little 
 dangling apologies for legs, was always meeting 
 with some mischance or another ; not only more 
 than his fair proportion of tureens of soup, 
 sauces, puddings and joints of meat, were pre- 
 cipitated in his face and lap, but, as his feet 
 could not reach the boards, he continually slipt 
 from his seat under the table, disappearing in a 
 manner at once the most extraordinary and 
 ridiculous. 
 
 We at length adopted the plan, in rough 
 
weather, of passing a handkercliief under his 
 arms, and tying him to the back of the bench. 
 
 The New York packets have generally an ex- 
 perienced captain and mate^ with a well-behaved 
 crew of sixteen or twenty individuals ; and I be- 
 lieve it is a well-known fact, that the discipline on 
 board all the American vessels, whether for war or 
 commerce, is carried to greater lengths than with 
 us. But notwithstanding this, the Sundays are 
 not marked either by prayers or the clean holiday 
 dresses of the sailors ; which, in both respects, 
 must be considered a deviation from wholesome 
 regulations. 
 
 I was told, on remarking the neglect, that the 
 men, however submissive in respect to details of 
 duty, would mutiny at such tyrannical orders as 
 related to dress, or shaving, or praying ; and I 
 could only smile at the strange inconsistency of 
 our nature. 
 
 Landsmen are astonished at seeing so few fish 
 in so long a voyage ; for, except a shoal of por- 
 poises now and then, or the still scarcer dolphin 
 sporting its vivid and ever-changing hues in the 
 wake of the ship, the ocean appears void of 
 other inhabitants than the myriads of sparkling 
 animalcula, which, on a dark night, make the 
 foam around resemble licpiid fire. 
 
 The joyful tidings of land a-head were at last 
 heard; and soon afterwards we regaled our 
 
sight with looking- on a low_, sandy, and not very 
 pleasing shore, having a light-house placed op- 
 posite to a dangerous hidden shoal that stretches 
 to Long Island, and leaves the entrance to the 
 harbour " pretty considerably" narrow. 
 
 Sailing now due north for a few miles, the 
 prospect began to brighten. A small ridge has 
 been burst asunder by the torrents of the river 
 Hudson, forming what are called " The Narrows ;" 
 a passage about half a mile wide, and well fur- 
 nished with formidable batteries on either side, 
 besides the immense red brick fort of La Fayette, 
 standing at some distance in the Channel. 
 
 It seems to me, that this approach to the city 
 of New York is far more expensively fortified than 
 necessity demanded : for if an enemy really 
 determined to attack this emporium of American 
 commerce, I presume a force would be landed 
 at the back of Long Island, and marching across 
 that short space, fall at once on the naval arsenal, 
 and thence pass over to the town, or rattle the 
 houses about the ears of the inhabitants. 
 
 Few views can be more cheerful and magnifi- 
 cent than the one which I enjoyed on passing the 
 Narrows. It wanted nothing but a back-ground 
 of mountains to make it unrivalled. 
 
 The morning was bright and lovely ; the 
 country on both shores liighly cultivated, and 
 though rarely exceeding a hundred feet in eleva- 
 
tion, is broken by gentle undulations in a very 
 pleasing- manner. Neat and comfortable-look- 
 ing houses, quite in the English style, are dotted 
 about, amidst gardens and orchards, shady 
 groves, fields, and hedge-rows. The same indus- 
 try and national habits met my eye on every side ; 
 and I was forced to remark that most of the 
 houses were built of planks nicely painted, and 
 that the vast natural harbour formed by the 
 expanded waters of the Hudson, was on a 
 grander scale than usual in Britain, before I quite 
 recollected I was a foreigner. 
 
 To the left, on Staten Island, is a rapidly in- 
 creasing town, and several spacious public build- 
 ings for hospitals. This is the quarantine ground 
 for the state of New York ; and its regulations, 
 as explained to me, were not only very incon- 
 sistent, but taught me the practical truth — that 
 every species of government has its disadvantages. 
 
 Vessels arriving from South America, or those 
 places where contagious fevers are prevalent, 
 here come to anchor. The crew and passengers 
 are visited by medical men of ability, and de- 
 tained on board a certain number of days ; but 
 those who take oath of intending to pass into Penn- 
 sylvania or other states, are permitted to cross 
 the island, and get on board any one of the 
 steam-boats plyuig to Philadelphia or elsewhere. 
 
 It is evident, that the most malignant plague 
 
t 
 
 might thus be disseminated throughout the Union ; 
 but on the other hand, said my friendly informer, 
 " what right can the state of New York have to 
 regulate by her laws the internal communica: 
 tions of the federation?" 
 
 At no other custom-house in the world does 
 a stranger meet with so much civility and so 
 many inconveniences as at that of New York. 
 The officer who boards the vessel is neither 
 drunken, insolent, nor taken from the lowest orders 
 of society ; but receiving from ten to twelve 
 shillings a-day throughout the year, is respect- 
 able from Ills situation, and rigidly faithful to his 
 government. Any attempt to bribe one of these 
 individuals would be resented as an insult, and 
 a personal quarrel would probably be the least 
 evil attending it. 
 
 But commerce not being properly represented 
 in Congress, and the duties at sea-ports being 
 almost the only source of revenue to tlie fede- 
 rative government at Washington, several an- 
 noying, and the merchants declare, very inef- 
 ficient, orders have been given. 
 
 The highly respectable firm to which I was 
 recommended, kindly sent a gentleman with 
 me, well acquainted with all the forms required ; 
 and I was handed about from desk No. 1, to that 
 of 5, in the corner, thence to office 2, and thus 
 under the scrutiny of seven or eight difi'erent 
 
8 
 
 checks on each other's conduct. One begged me 
 to write a list of my boxes and their contents ; to 
 another I paid some trifling fees ; and to a third 
 I made oath my list of baggage was correct : 
 when this latter gentleman, in the politest manner 
 possible, gave me leave, not to bring my boxes 
 on shore, but to go and have them examined by 
 the officer on board the vessel. 
 
 '^ But my oath, sir ! is not that sufficient to save 
 me further trouble ?" said I, rather piqued at 
 being, as I thought, treated like a smuggler. 
 '^ Indeed," replied the civil man at the desk, " I 
 really am sorry you should have so much trouble ; 
 but the oath is only taken as a matter of course, 
 and because sometimes small dutiable articles 
 are thus revealed which might otherwise escape 
 the searchers." 
 
 Two of my trunks being filled with books and 
 other articles liable to the customs, 1 was desired 
 to value them as high as I possibly could; because, 
 if the duty amounted to above fifty dollars, I 
 should only have to pay a per centage on that sum ; 
 but if only to 49 J dollars, then the whole would 
 be demanded. My goods being rather expensive 
 I got off for 3J dollars; but had I been less able 
 to afford the money, I should by the present 
 sysfem, have been much more hardly dealt with. 
 
 This regulation in the land of fhe emigrant 
 and the destitute, the home for the poor and the 
 
persecuted of all other nations, struck me as 
 very incongruous ; but a citizen shortly after 
 explained, " that the people of the United States 
 were far too wise to be willing to make their 
 country a general alms-house for Europe. A 
 general work-house their philanthropy taught 
 them to make it ; but for those only who would 
 work, not for the idlers or beggars who come 
 to live comfortably on the industry of others." 
 
 " To prevent this," continued he, " each 
 captain who brings emigrants is obliged to enter 
 into securities with the authorities, that none 
 shall be chargeable to the community for a cer- 
 tain length of time ; and I suppose there being 
 no drawback allowed on duties below fifty dol- 
 lars, is a part of the same system.'^ This is, in 
 fact, an alien bill, under another name ! 
 
 There are several good hotels at New York ; 
 but as I intended remaining some time, 1 was 
 recommended to go to one of the numerous pri- 
 vate boarding-houses : and I fortunately fixed 
 on one in which a small, but agreeable party is 
 resident ; where 1 am now as much domesticated 
 as the kindness of the elder ladies, and the good- 
 humoured liveliness of their nieces, can make 
 me. By no means a slight relief during the wet, 
 cold, and changeable weather, of the present 
 season on this side the Atlantic. 
 
 I remain, &c. 
 
«) 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 NEW YORK — SHIP-BUILDING — INHABITANTS AND CUSTOMS — 
 GOOD FEELING TOWARDS BRITAIN — DESCENDANTS OF DUTCH — 
 IRISH RESIDENTS — PAPER MONEY. 
 
 New York, May 7, 1827. 
 DEAR , 
 
 New York was founded by the Dutcb^ very 
 early in the seventeenth century, at the southern 
 end of a long narrow island ; the cows and other 
 domestic animals having had the merit, as their 
 historian Knickerbocker supposes, of laying out 
 the streets and alleys. Tlie truth is, that the old 
 part of the town, like similar ones in Europe, is 
 narrow, crooked, and inconvenient ; but the 
 larger and more modern portion is built with 
 wide straight streets, good foot-pavements, and 
 neat red brick houses, exactly in the English 
 style. As the cities hi America were originally 
 constructed of wood, many houses of that material 
 still remain ; and occasion such constant accidents 
 by fire, that scarcely a night passes without two 
 or three. The engines are numerous, and well 
 served, being turned out with alacrity as soon as 
 tlie xinging of the church bells give an alarm ; 
 
11 
 
 and so accustomed are the inhabitants to the noise 
 and bustle of conflagrations, that unless one 
 happens in their immediate neighbourhood, they 
 take no notice whatever of the occurrence. 
 
 This city does not contain many handsome 
 buildings to attract the stranger, except the town- 
 hall and the exchange — both built of stone ; but 
 there are two small museums, a neat arcade for 
 shops, clean baths, several theatres, billiard tables, 
 and the castle battery, which projects some dis- 
 tance into the bay, and being converted into a 
 species of Vauxhall, affords a cool and delightful 
 promenade on summer evenings. 
 
 Broadway would be considered a handsome 
 street in any town, and there is a great deal of 
 commercial activity and bustle in every direction ; 
 but the whole city is badly cleaned and lighted, 
 without sewers, and destitute of any palatable 
 water, not brought from the opposite village of 
 Brooklyn. 
 
 The private equipages here are neither very 
 numerous nor elegant ; but the hackney coaches 
 are good, and the number and convenience of 
 the steam-boats seen plying about the river in 
 every direction is truly astonishing ; so that for 
 a penny you can cross over to Jersey or Long 
 Island almost at any moment. 
 
 The two branches of the Hudson which enclose 
 New York form so extensive a bay, that during 
 
12 
 
 very heavy gales from the north-west vessels 
 have been frequently injured ; to lessen which 
 danger^ and render the loading and unloading of 
 cargoes more convenient, avast number of jetties 
 or small piers have been projected, fifty or a 
 hundred yards into the water; forming a kind of 
 dock between them for merchantmen, but open to 
 the river. The Government naval yard is at Long 
 Island, east of Brooklyn ; and is considered the 
 most complete establishment of the kind in the 
 United States. 
 
 There is not much activity in that department 
 at present ; but vessels are generally framed from 
 a beautiful model, and are much slighter than 
 with us ; being built rather for fast sailing and 
 economy in materials, than for tonnage and dura- 
 bility. Their masts rake aft much more than ours, 
 which may perhaps be one cause of their confessed 
 superiority in sailing ; though the following rea- 
 son given me by a shipwright appears plausible : 
 The British act of parliament orders, that the 
 tonnage of merchantmen shall be registered l)y 
 multiplying the length into the breadth, and 
 that product into half the breadth for the 
 depth ; which induces the owner to build his ship 
 as narrow, deep, and wall-sided, as he possibly 
 can, making the stern nearly straight up and 
 down, without tliat degree of projection necessary 
 either for elegance or proportion. A large East 
 
13 
 
 or West Indiaman, he told me, would thus gain 
 150 tons at least over the register ; wherein con- 
 sisted the true reason why they were in general 
 such floating tubs, and made such long voyages. 
 
 Several naval officers here have good humour- 
 edly laughed at me, as an Englishman, because 
 our Admiralty has appointed ten-gun brigs for the 
 packet service, and employed the same descrip- 
 tion of vessels to cruize against the pirates and 
 slave traders. For they affirm it to be a well- 
 known fact, and a British commander corroborates 
 their testimony from his own experience, that 
 those brigs are the worst sailers and incon- 
 veniently arranged ships of war in our service ; 
 so that they never can, except by chance, make 
 a capture or quick passage, besides being par- 
 ticularly uncomfortable. 
 
 New York contains, I should think, about 
 180,000 inhabitants, and both from its population 
 and other advantages, is decidedly the most 
 important city in the Union. Every man here is 
 employed in some trade or other ; and though 
 they have universally discarded the word shop 
 as ungenteel, and adopted the softened term of 
 store, yet Buonaparte's taunt of being a nation of 
 shopkeepers, would have been much more ap- 
 propriately applied here than in Britain. Dinner 
 parties are not very common, but small dances and 
 evening societies are both frequent and agreeable. 
 
14 
 
 Many of the ladies are lively, handsome, and 
 well educated; cultivathig music, French, Italian, 
 and other accomplishments, with great success. 
 Their complexions, features, and manners, are de- 
 cidedly English ; but they are fond of adopting 
 the gaudiest French modes of dress, and do not, 
 I think, show in general much taste in the blend- 
 ing of colours. 
 
 The men are by no means deficient in acquire- 
 ments, but have often a rude dictatorial way of 
 contradicting each other, and wearing their hats 
 in all places and under all circumstances, which 
 betokens ill manners instead of perfect equality : 
 in fact, there is here, as elsewhere, a complete 
 aristocracy ; only the distinction is marked by 
 superiority of wealth instead of birth ; and those 
 who hold situations in the militia or other depart- 
 ments are remarkably tenacious of their honor- 
 ary titles. 
 
 The superiority affected by the descendants of 
 the Dutch settlers is quite annising ; as I am 
 told they rarely associate or intermarry with their 
 neighbours and fellow-citizens, but represent 
 their ancestors as having belonged to the first 
 families hi Holland, quite different from the needy 
 or persecuted beings who usually become colo- 
 nists. Their historian Knickerbocker, however, 
 treats these worthies with something of disrespect; 
 and tells us how they first intoxicated the Indians 
 
15 
 
 with gin, then cheated them out of small portions 
 of land, built forts, and by violence and bloodshed 
 afterwards increased their territory. 
 
 There are very few peculiarities here in the 
 dress of the male population ; scarcely any are 
 ragg-ed, but many are shabby. Excessively long 
 -watch-chains and large seals are commonly sported ; 
 high hats, large at the top, and with little brim, 
 are worn, and it is the custom to rub the beaver 
 against the fur ; so that one closely and neatly 
 brushed, as with us, is a sure criterion of a fo- 
 reigner. Persons in mourning wear voluminous 
 folds of crape round the hat, with long flappers 
 sticking out behind, like our undertakers; and 
 in riding, the saddle is placed much more for- 
 ward than with us, without any crupper : this 
 may, perhaps, be owing to the horses being usu- 
 ally large in the barrel, as they are never stinted 
 in regard to water; but it decidedly has an un- 
 graceful appearance, and, I should think, must 
 deprive the rider of much of his power over the 
 animal. 
 
 The number of free blacks in this city is consi- 
 derable ; and on the 4th of next July, even those few 
 negroes in the state who have not completed the 
 age oftwenty-five years, will be emancipated: they 
 are generally employed as domestic servants; the 
 want of which class in the community is severely 
 felt by families. The lowest stations of the hard- 
 
16 
 
 working- classes are generally filled by Irishmen, 
 who are as much vilified here, whether justly or 
 not I cannot tell, as in England or Scotland. 
 They are accused of lighting false fires on the 
 coast to cause shipwrecks, and then of plunder- 
 hig- the vessel, having first knocked the crew on 
 the head with stockings filled with stones ; and 
 in short, if any peculiar atrocity is committed in 
 the land, friend Pat is immediately suspected. 
 
 New York is well supplied with fuel, vege- 
 tables, fruit, meat, and poultry, from Long 
 Island and Jersey ; fish is abundant, and of va- 
 rious species ; but I cannot think the large taste- 
 less oysters here, are equal to those we get in 
 England. Wild fowl is innumerable ; wines, 
 whisky, and spirits, the same as with us ; and, 
 in short, there is no want of good eating and 
 drinking, but it does not seem to me at much 
 more reasoaable prices than with us. 
 
 As church and state do not go hand in hand 
 here, there are no tithes, each sect supporting 
 its own ministers and places of worship ; but the 
 distinction of pews is quite as rigidly enforced as 
 with us, the doctrine of equality not extending 
 to a communion of seats, or in truth to any of 
 the other good things of this world. 
 
 I am much pleased at observing the kindly 
 feelings towards the mother country, which are 
 now vei7 generally prevalent, and the liberal 
 
17 
 
 sentiments of almost all I meet. It is plain they 
 are no longer afraid of our attempting the hope- 
 less task of reconquering them ; and^ therefore, 
 refrain from implanting ridiculous prejudices and 
 untruths in the minds of their children ; and the 
 last war, by showing clearly the value of the 
 commercial intercourse between the two nations, 
 the difficulty of tlieir acquiring the Canadas, and 
 our ability to harass their coasts, has likewise ma- 
 terially tended towards a perfect reconciliation. 
 
 That these republicans would exalt the British 
 empire by undervaluing themselves, I conceive 
 no man could either expect or wish : but I have 
 met several highly respectable individuals, who 
 declare the late hostilities to have been the work 
 of a comparatively small faction, which thought 
 England was too much hampered by the French 
 under Napoleon to be able to attend to her 
 American possessions, and therefore seized the 
 opportunity of giving the sick lion a kick. 
 
 Mr. Clay, I believe, or one of the commis- 
 sioners who made so favourable a treaty at Ghent, 
 wrote a very energetic letter to his government, 
 on the renewed vigour and overwhelming power 
 of the British ; and the great majority of the 
 American citizens, thinking that the precise mo- 
 ment of the quarrel did them no credit, were 
 highly gratified when the peace was proclaimed. 
 
 The letter alluded to, is now brought forward 
 
 c 
 
19 
 
 in accusation of the writer, by his political op- 
 ponents. 
 
 Some of my acquaintance here have taken 
 much pains to describe to nie the torpedos, and 
 various infernal machines which were invented 
 by the New Yorkers, for the annoyance of Sir 
 T. Hardy, when he blockaded their port; and 
 they all speak in high terms of the skill and ho- 
 nourable warfare of that distinguished officer, 
 who, it appears, most effectually cut up their 
 commerce. The like praise is not bestowed on 
 another British admiral, whom they accuse of 
 havino" allowed the women in a small town near 
 the Chesapeake to be ill used by his crews ; and 
 they speak of our having burnt the records and 
 historical documents at Washington as a very 
 paltry and unworthy measure. 
 
 There are several very pleasing excursions 
 within a short distance of this city, both in the 
 well-cultivated and undulathig district of Long 
 Island, and in the state of Jersey, near the 
 woody cliffs of Hoboken ; seventeen miles from 
 whence, close to the manufacturing town of Pat- 
 terson, are the highly-beautiful Falls of the 
 Passaic river; which many persons assure me, 
 are the most picturesque ones in America ; but 
 I have not yet visited them. 
 
 At Hoboken, a number of gigs, horses, and 
 neat light vehicles, called pleasure-waggons, are 
 
19 
 
 always kept for hire, as the excursion to the 
 Passaic is a favourite amusement with the citizens 
 of New York : so is likewise a visit to the hand- 
 some town of Newhaven, about sixty miles east, 
 and in the state of Connecticut, to which the 
 steam-boats convey them in rather less than six 
 hours. 
 
 There is one, and, I believe, several other 
 packs of hounds kept in this vicinity, which, 
 during the season, are hunted in the English 
 style ; but the severity of the winter naturally 
 curtails the number of sporting days. The breed 
 of horses in New Jersey is extremely good ; and 
 races are annually held in Long Island. 
 
 New York is governed by a mayor and corpo- 
 ration, as with us ; and the regulations of police, 
 parish-rates, fines, and punishments, appear to 
 be of a similar nature to our own. 
 
 An European is struck with the almost total 
 want of the precious metals which prevails, and 
 the substitution oi' paper-money, for the value 
 even of a dollar, or four shillings, throughout the 
 United States. These notes are issued by private 
 bankers, who obtain an act of incorporation 
 without difficulty; for if one state legislature 
 refuses to grant it, another is not so scrupulous. 
 Tiie country is inundated with banks, and some 
 failures continually take place; but their very 
 number is a protection to the pubhc, as it is rare 
 
 C 2 
 
20 
 
 for any one firm to have a large sum in circu- 
 lation. During- the last war with Britain, paper- 
 money as low as one cent, about a halfpenny, 
 was the medium instead of cash. 
 
 I shall not apologize lor the length of my 
 letters, because you provoked me to the task, 
 and must suffer the penalty ; and in regard to 
 any errors in judgment I have committed, or may 
 hereafter be led into, I can only promise not to 
 mislead you wilfully. Two individuals rarely see 
 objects through the same medium ; therefore 
 be not too harsh, should you find my accounts 
 differ from those given by other writers. 
 
 Yours sincerely, <&c. 
 
21 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 STEAM-BOATS— PUBLIC COACHES — PHILADELPHIA.— BALTIMORE 
 — HOTELS AND MODE OF LIVING — WASHINGTON CITY — 
 SLAVES— THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ffMshingion, May 18, 182?. 
 DEA.R , 
 
 I QUITTED my friends at New York with the 
 regret due to their constant kindness and at- 
 tentions. The steam-boat T embarked in w^as 
 really superb_, both in size and fitting up ; con- 
 taining two elegant cabins, and a smaller one for 
 the ladies ; a bar supplied with fruit, wines, and 
 all other etceteras ; a hair-dresser's shop ; and on 
 the deck, plenty of chairs and benches, with a 
 linen awning to keep off the sun. 
 
 The price was as reasonable as the accommo- 
 dations were good; the conveyance of ninety- 
 six miles, to Philadelphia, being about seventeen 
 shillings ; and the only trouble entailed on the 
 traveller, was to keep a sharp look out after his 
 portmanteau, the owners of the boat not being 
 liable for losses. 
 
 About 150 passengers of every grade in so- 
 
22 
 
 ciety hastened on board as the bell gave warn- 
 ing of six o'clock being about to strike ; and 
 the powerful engine was stopped every few miles 
 on our progress,, either to take in more indivi- 
 duals, or allow those already with us to land. 
 There was no other distinction of persons or 
 place than the single regulation^, ^' No smoking 
 aft the boiler/' and that of very properly al- 
 lowing the ladies to seat themselves at table, 
 before the cabin doors were opened, and the 
 breakfast bell rang its welcome summons. Wel- 
 come indeed it was ; and the instantaneous rush 
 was terrific ! One of those cold north-westers, 
 which cut to the very bone, had sharpened our 
 appetites ; and with a most determined regard to 
 self, but without quarrelling with his neighbours, 
 each person precipitated himself down the stairs 
 to the spot where fish, flesh, fowls, eggs, butter, 
 tea, and coffee were disappearing with a sur- 
 prising velocity. 
 
 The great bay of the Hudson, westward of 
 New York, is filled with strong stakes, driven 
 into the mud by the fisliermen, to secure their 
 nets; and between these our enormous but 
 easily managed steam-boat had to track her 
 course. The legislature of New York has lons" 
 declared them a nuisance and impediment to 
 navigation ; but the o})posite state of New Jersey 
 has taken them under her protection, as the law- 
 
23 
 
 ful rights of free citizens. To obviate this dif- 
 ficulty. New York has laid claim to the whole 
 river, as far as high-water mark, on the Jersey 
 shore ; the other resists, and the lawyers have 
 kindly undertaken to defend the interests of all 
 parties. 
 
 An American man-of-war was now lying at 
 anchor in the centre of these important stakes, 
 and at every change of the tide her huge sides 
 swept away acres of the annoyance. It was quite 
 amusing to listen to the remarks of my fellow- 
 voyagers : " A glorious sweep, that last," said 
 the New Yorkers : '^ A damnation tyrannical 
 act," replied i; Jerseyite ; '^ I guess they lengthen 
 the cable and shift their situation on purpose. 
 I see no right the time-serving government at 
 Washington has to order its ships into our waters, 
 and I will move in the House that they be or- 
 dered out.'' 
 
 Theshores on both sides, as we passed be- 
 tween Staten Island and Jersey, were dotted with 
 farms and neat-looking houses : all were built 
 of boards, painted white, with green window- 
 shutters or Venetian bUnds. Cultivation did not 
 appear to extend far from the rivers, but was 
 carried on exactly as in England, in fields and 
 small divisions : the general appearance of the 
 country was flat and woody, the hills, or ratlier 
 undulations, low; but the spires of village 
 
24 
 
 churches were seen peeping out in various di- 
 rections ; while the reflection, that each inmate of 
 the pretty and comfortable houses around was 
 proprietor of the land and orchard he cultivated_, 
 added much cheerfulness to the whole scene. 
 
 At the town of New Brunswick on the Raritan, 
 ten stage-coaches were in readiness to convey 
 those who chose to the Delaware. These ve- 
 hicles are low, without springs, and open on every 
 side, unless the leather curtains are let down ; 
 but the road was tolerable, and 1 did not get my 
 bones quite so much dislocated as I anticipated. 
 There were three seats inside, containing in all 
 nine persons, besides one on the box with the 
 coachman; and 1 assure you, the four strong 
 handsome horses, with harness like our own, but 
 without brass ornaments, were driven over the 
 twenty-seven miles in three hours and a half. 
 The drivers change with their horses, and never 
 ask for fees ! 
 
 We passed through several villages, one of 
 which contained a college for the professional 
 studies ; and I remarked, that the farms were 
 large, of a light soil, well cultivated, with each 
 an extensive orchard of apple, pear, cherry, and 
 peach trees, besides vast tracts of small timber, 
 for the supply, I understood, of fuel to New 
 York. 
 At the well-built and populous town of Trenton, 
 
25 
 
 a steam-boat was waiting* on tiie Delaware for 
 our arrival. The river is there about as wide as 
 the Thames at Kew^ with five wooden arclies 
 across it^ and the road suspended below by strong- 
 beams^ so as to be quite level : it is, in fact, 
 upheld in a manner just the reverse of our chain 
 bridg'es in North Wales. 
 
 The banks of the Dekiware are pleasing", and 
 have many country-houses ; among" others, that 
 of Joseph Buonaparte, once king' of Spain, hut 
 now known only as a wealthy and amiable country 
 gentleman, entirely occupied with his obser- 
 vatory and scientific pursuits. Further down, I 
 saw Burlington, Bristol, several other villages, 
 and a quicker succession of gentlemen's seats, 
 which are built of dark-coloured stone in Penn- 
 sylvania, till at length, about sun-set, the large 
 city of Philadelphia rose like an amphitheatre, 
 thirty or forty feet higher than the sweeping 
 bend of the fine river, which the wheels of our 
 vessel were violently agitating. 
 
 We had run the forty miles from Trenton in 
 three hours and a half, against both wind and 
 tide. 
 
 Philadelphia is the most regular built town I 
 ever saw : but as it is entirely of red brick, with 
 houses all of the same size, only two stories 
 above the ground floor, and has but one steeple 
 to break the monotony of the scene ; it is rather 
 
26 
 
 remarkable for neatness and comfort, than the 
 slightest pretensions to magnificence. 
 
 The streets are abont as wide as Bond Street, 
 quite straight, and a mile and a half long, well 
 paved and clean, with a broad footway of bricks 
 on each side, and in some places a few trees, 
 which greatly enliven the view. The town-hall 
 is a large heavy building, in which is a statue to 
 Washington, and a museum, not so good, I think, 
 as those of New York. 
 
 The theatre is small and neat, and in it I saw 
 perform a Mr. Forrest, who is certainly a pro- 
 mising tragedian, but rather a ranter. Several 
 of the private banks are built of stone in a very 
 handsome style; but the Exchange and Custom- 
 house are unworthy of so great a city. 
 
 In the centre of the town is Market Street, 
 sufficiently wide to allow along well-built covered 
 shed to run down the middle, and spoil the best 
 thoroughfare of the place : besides, the ex- 
 cessive length of the stalls must render the pur- 
 chase of articles extremely tedious and incon- 
 venient. 
 
 There are also two smaller markets ; and it 
 seems generally allowed, that no town in the 
 Union is better supplied with the necessaries and 
 comforts of life, or at a more reasonable rate, 
 than Pliiladelphia. The society of well edu- 
 cated and agreeable families, is likewise on a 
 
27 
 
 more extended scale in that city than any other 
 of the Union ; for though there are many whose 
 esteem and intimacy you would wish to cultivate 
 in other places_, no spot in America can boast of 
 so many citizens of easy fortune, free from the 
 anxieties of speculations and disappointments : 
 in short, more elegantly dressed pretty women, 
 and gentlemenly young men, with neater turns 
 out of horses and equipages are seen there than 
 any where else in the Union ; and Chesnut Street 
 is more fashionable, taking the year round, than 
 either the Broadway of New York or the Avenues 
 of Washington, 
 
 The dock-yard is small, and at the southern 
 extremity of the town. The Americans there 
 build their vessels, under large wooden houses, 
 and place salt between the ribs, as they declare, 
 to prevent the dry-rot. Scarcely any thing is 
 now going on; but a sixty-gun frigate and a 
 large three decker are on the stocks nearly 
 complete. That port is evidently sinking daily 
 in commercial importance, which arises, perhaps, 
 not only from the long and dangerous navigation 
 of its river, and the proximity of New York, but 
 from the minds of the population turning with 
 more pleasure towards agriculture, coal-mines, 
 and manufactures, than the dangers and dis- 
 comforts of a seafaring life. 
 
 Will you think me blind to the resources and 
 
28 
 
 genius of tliis thriving- republic^ when I assure 
 you, that the more I converse and associate with 
 its inhabitants, the more satisfied I am the nav.y 
 is not a popuhir service. I have become ac- 
 quainted with many well-informed officers in that 
 department ; and even they generally end their 
 patriotic expressions of pride at the renown their 
 maritime exertions have obtained with " One 
 more \oyage, and then for a farm in the back 
 countries." 
 
 Between you and 1, my dear , who the 
 
 devil would prefer the miseries and monotony of 
 a sailor's life, unless forced to it by necessity, 
 or called to defend the independence of his 
 country ? 
 
 What the Philadelphians justly pride them- 
 selves most upon, are the water-works for the 
 supply of the city. These are situated on the 
 river Schuylkill, where it runs almost parallel 
 with the Delaware, and about three miles west- 
 ward of it. By building a strong stone dam 
 across the stream, power has been given to three 
 large wheels, each of which throws up to re- 
 servoirs 100 feet above them, no less than 1000 
 gallons of clear and excellent water per minute: 
 the basins are calculated to contain ten millions 
 of gallons, and iron pipes convey this indis- 
 pensable article to every house in the town. 
 
 The consumption is at present two millions of 
 
29 
 
 gallons ill the twenty-four hours ; and each house- 
 holder pays 1/. a year^ or 1/. 12*. if private 
 baths are to be supplied^ without scarcely any 
 restriction as to quantity. 
 
 The banks of the Schuylkill are broken and 
 very pleasing-, being studded with gentlemen's 
 seats and pleasure gardens, some of which have 
 large hot and green houses as with us : in fact, 
 it is difficult to travel through the United States 
 without being every moment reminded of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 I "^ reckon " the population of the Pennsyl- 
 vanian capital to be 150,000, of whom one-sixth 
 part are said to be free negroes ; and these 
 gentry are becoming a cause of such great in- 
 quietude^ even to their staunchest advocates, 
 that a colony called "^ Liberia " has been formed 
 expressly for them on the coast of Africa, and 
 to ^^ hich they are not always very willing' to go, 
 if reports are to be credited. 
 
 I cannot have a fitter opportunity than while 
 writing about that most correct and orderly city, 
 to clear up your favourite hypothesis, "^ that in 
 a country where no man who will work can have 
 the slightest fear of not providing enough for 
 his children to eat, the morality of the youthful 
 must be much more exemplary, as no prudential 
 reasons will prevent early attachments and mar- 
 riages.^^ Depend on it^ mankind are much the 
 
30 
 
 same here as elsewhere ; and not only are there 
 very numerous individuals^ possessing tender 
 hearts and light purses, who endeavour to as- 
 certain in Philadelphia whether others are equally 
 susceptible with themselves, but many of them 
 are even adorned in the becoming dresses of 
 quakeresses. 
 
 The steam-boat which conveyed me to New- 
 castle had on board a company of Baltimore 
 volunteers, who with their band, had been paying 
 a few days' visit to their military friends of the 
 sister state ; and I must do them the justice to 
 say, they were a well-dressed, good-looking, sol- 
 dier-like set of young men, who seemed to take 
 much pride in their appearance and conduct. I 
 never rejnember to have witnessed half the hearty 
 good-will displayed by the citizens of England 
 towards soldiers that I observed on several oc- 
 casions among these republicans : here the news- 
 papers even are bold enough to praise a military 
 mania, and very many private schools in different 
 states have adopted an uniform. 
 
 The Delaware widened considerably as we 
 descended ; the banks were flat and well culti- 
 vated, with a dense woody background, of evi- 
 dently a recent growth. 
 
 The sixteen miles across part of the states of 
 Delaware and Maryland, were rendered an agree- 
 able drive by the culti\ation and different vil- 
 
31 
 
 lages ; but the soil was far from rich, and the 
 country was quite level. At Frenchtown on the 
 Chesapeake, we got on board a steam-boat, the 
 cabins of which were fitted up with fifty or sixty 
 clean and comfortable beds, but as our party was 
 far more numerous, lots were drawn for the 
 births, and those who got a blank went to sleep 
 on the chairs and tables. 
 
 The hotels at Philadelphia were good; but 
 that of Mr. Barnham, at Baltimore, is one of the 
 most complete establishments I ever saw. It is 
 built of stone, in the best part of the town, and 
 close to the uncommonly elegant monument 
 which commemorates a skirmish with the British 
 in 1814: the bed-rooms are very numerous, suf- 
 ficiently large and airy, while the convenience of 
 having baths, and a hair-dresser, &c. in the 
 house, with the moderate charge of 6s. daily, 
 meals included, leaves nothing to be desired. 
 
 A man who makes a tour in this Republic must 
 either conform to the customs of the natives, or 
 be kept in continual irritation by useless com- 
 plaints. The servants neither ask for, or often 
 receive any remuneration, and of course, they 
 take very little trouble in their attentions to 
 travellers; but as an European can rarely shake 
 off his old habits, and do without attendance, I 
 always make an arrangement with the head 
 waiter, and for a few shillings find my comfort 
 
32 
 
 wonderfully increased. I then demand the hours 
 of the house, and am carefully punctual at break- 
 fast, dhmer, and tea; because nothing- can be 
 had at other times, or in private apartments. 
 
 All the inmates eat at the table-d'hotes, which 
 are supplied with very great profusion ; but as 
 many from the neighbouring dwellings are in the 
 habit of paying' a weekly sum for the same pri- 
 vilege, not unfrequently above 200 persons sit 
 down to the attack, and great activity of hands 
 and teeth, as well as a quick eye to scan the 
 contents of dishes, is indispensable. 
 
 Tlie first time I was initiated into the approved 
 manner of proceeding at one of those dinners, 
 I scarcely got any thing to eat through my asto- 
 nishment. A few minutes before two oYlock 
 the outer rooms were crowded to excess ; small 
 parties were edging knowingly towards the for- 
 bidden door, through which, on the ringing of a 
 bell, the whole mass of hungry beings poured 
 tumultuously. In seven minutes and a half ex- 
 actly, the dishes offish, joints, poultry, and tarts 
 were almost entirely cleared, goblets of brandy 
 and water, "a la discretion," had been swal- 
 lowed, and two-thirds of the chairs were again 
 vacant. 
 
 It is their anxiety to get back to their country- 
 houses and business which alone induces this 
 extraordinary haste j for I have seen less drunk- 
 
33 
 
 eiiness and more abstemiousness in the United 
 States of America^ than in any other country I 
 ever visited. 
 
 Baltimore is neither so large nor so populous 
 as New York and Philadelphia ; but I like its 
 appearance better^ as it is built on more uneven 
 ground^ and its streets are usually wide, clean, 
 and straight, without being so undeviatingly re- 
 gular as those of the latter-named town. The 
 houses are of brick, but some much larger than 
 the others, and many have a small garden, or a 
 few trees before them, which always makes an 
 agreeable contrast. 
 
 The Exchange is a handsome stone building ; 
 and there is a lofty column in honour of Wash- 
 ington, to the south of the town, from the sunmiit 
 of which the prospect is extensive. A theatre, a 
 museum, a picture gallery, and a dock-yard, with 
 several excellent springs of water, markets, and 
 quays, are also found in the capital of Maryland; 
 but it possesses that curse of the southern states, 
 a slave population rapidly increasing, and daily 
 becoming more formidable. 
 
 The very sight of slavery in the American re- 
 public is infinitely more revolting to the feelings 
 of an Englishman than in the West India islands, 
 and the reason is obvious enough : in the latter, 
 the trees, the climate, the culture, every object 
 in short which meets his eye is exotic, is strange, 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 and the negro slave strikes the mind as a novelty 
 inseparable from the others : but in the United 
 States^ none of those differences are very de- 
 cidedly marked, while the houses and manners of 
 the people are so entirely English, that the sight 
 of a gang of slaves had the same effect upon me, 
 as if witnessed in the vicinity of London. 
 
 T do not doubt, as far as the mere animal is 
 concerned, but that the slave is often much 
 better off than the white labourer. He eats, 
 drinks, sleeps, and has a large family around 
 him, without fear of poverty; in sickness or 
 health, in youth or age, he must be provided 
 for and protected and clothed, at least, such is 
 the present law in the British West Indies. But 
 he is still the property of another, he can have 
 no affections of the heart or feelings of the man 
 at his own control : he can have no stimulus to 
 exertion, except fear of punishment; no pride 
 as a citizen or human being ; but his whole en- 
 joyment is in the present indulgence of his pas- 
 sions and vices. 
 
 The increase among the negroes is in a ratio 
 out of all proportion to that of the whites of the 
 warmer states, because their children are not so 
 much affected by the heat and epidemics ; a;id 
 1 am assured by various gentlemen, that the 
 number of slaves throughout the Union at this 
 moment amounts to nearly three millions. I 
 
35 
 
 cannot credit the correctness of this information^ 
 and believe their fears magnify the object ; for 
 almost all eagerly discuss the prudence and ne- 
 cessity of getting rid of their slaves, provided 
 themselves and families are not reduced to beg- 
 gary by the means adopted, and that the " nig- 
 gers,^^ when emancipated, shall be removed to 
 a distance. 
 
 The thirty-eight miles from Baltimore to 
 Washington is over a deep sandy road, and 
 through a remarkably poor tract of gently-rising 
 hills, possessing very few cultivated spots 
 amidst the wide forest of young oaks, but a 
 large quantity of iron ore : and when popu- 
 lation becomes sufficiently dense to oblige the 
 farmer to improve the less productive soils, I 
 should think the vicinity of many of the rivulets 
 I passed, might be rendered valuable pro- 
 perty. 
 
 After a most tedious drag of many hours, the 
 coach came in sight of the wide Potomac, with 
 its headlands and deep-shaded bays to our left ; 
 while in front was a large space of dreary 
 clearing, without trees, without cultivation, and 
 the habitations seemingly without order, and 
 lost in the vastness of the melancholy circle. 
 
 On a small rising in the centre stands a very 
 elegant stone building of imposing dimensions, 
 with a fine faQade of columns at its principal 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 entrance, but with a dome disproportionately 
 larg-e for the edifice, and doorways far too 
 small : tiiis is the Capitol. The interior is hand- 
 some and conveniently arranged : at the north- 
 ern extremity is the senate hall, richly fitted up ; 
 while the southern is occupied by the hall of 
 representatives, a semicircular apartment, sup- 
 ported by marble pillars. The public is freely 
 admitted to the debates, except individuals 
 tainted with dark faces. 
 
 The library occupies part of the west front, 
 and not only commands a view down a long wide 
 aveiuie of poplar trees, to the handsome stone 
 residence of the president, but beyond, to the 
 country-seats and park -like scenery in the vici- 
 nity of Georg-etown. The inside of the dome 
 is partly decorated with some large paintings, 
 the execution of which struck me as unworthy 
 both of the subjects and the situation. 
 
 Washington, as a city, cannot yet be said to 
 exist ! The intended plan on paper is truly 
 magnificent ; but very little has yet been done, 
 and I much doubt whether it will ever be accom- 
 plished ; as the country round is peculiarly poor, 
 and the receding waters of the Potomac nuist 
 prevent its dock-yard becoming a great naval 
 station. 
 
 A foreigner who visits no other part of the 
 Union than this metropolis of the Federation, 
 
37 
 
 will quit the country with extremely erroneous 
 ideas of the power and resources of the United 
 States. The scale on which it Avas commenced 
 was so g-rand, that what exists is paltry in the 
 extreme^ and alike undeserving- of the efforts of 
 so great a nation, and of the sacred name it bears 
 
 There is a district of ten or twelve square 
 leagues attached to this city^ under the immediate 
 jurisdiction of the general government ; but as 
 the original great error was committed of not 
 abolishing slavery here^ the executive cannot in- 
 terfere on that point with the new territories of 
 the republic. 
 
 The proportion of blacks seen in these streets, 
 now that the Congress is not sitting and few 
 visitors are met with, is really quite astonishing ; 
 but 1 cannot agree with my American friends, 
 that it is one of the curses entailed by " Mother 
 Britain :" because, when they told '' Mother 
 Britain " to keep at home, and mind her own 
 affairs, they could just as easily have got rid of 
 all the evils attending her management, as of 
 part of them. 
 
 The vast state of Virginia, which has hitherto 
 been the most powerful and influential in the 
 Anglo-American republic, is still governed by 
 her original colonial charter, without any material 
 modifications or alterations, as far as I can learn ; 
 and it must be a matter of regret, that the high- 
 
38 
 
 minded and polished Virginian gentlemen are, 
 as a body, fast losing their political importance. 
 
 Their country scarcely now stands fourth, in the 
 returns to Congress ! You know enough of the 
 constitution of this nation, to make the following 
 brief sketch quite suQicient for the purposes of a 
 letter. There are at present twenty-four states or 
 republics, perfectly independent of each other as 
 far as regards their internal laws and government ; 
 but ia order to tighten the bonds of amity, and for 
 mutual protection, it has been agreed to nominate 
 a general council and executive, at this city of 
 Washhigton, to decide on peace and war, and 
 legislate on the collective interests of the whole 
 Union. Each 40,000 citizens not receiving 
 parochial relief, or confined in prison, sends one 
 member to this Congress, who is paid one or two 
 guineas a-day during the time of meeting, accord- 
 ing to the wealth and generosity of the state he 
 is deputed from : therefore, in all calculations of 
 comparative expense in governing, it should be 
 remem})ered that the people of this country have 
 to suj)port twenty-five different establishments ; 
 the aggregate amount of which, although far less 
 than our expenditure in Great Britain, presses 
 perhaps equally heavy on the means of the 
 community. 
 
 The territories not having apopulation of 40,000 
 citizens, arc governed by the president and execu- 
 
39 
 
 tive at Washington ; to support whose dignity^ 
 and other contingencies, the customs of all the 
 ports in the Union are placed at its disposal. 
 
 Party spirit is runnhig high about the election 
 of president the ensuing four years ; and the innu- 
 merable newspapers of the Union bespatter the 
 candidates, their partisans, and each other, with 
 more abuse and acrimony than I ever noticed in 
 England. Many of these journals are extremely 
 well edited ; and it is surprising, that almost 
 every village should possess some few individuals 
 capable of conducting one at all. 
 
 Speedy oblivion is the merited fate of a large 
 proportion ; more particularly when they indulge 
 in such effusions, as calling Lord Cochrane the 
 saviour — the Messiah of Greece ; or declaring, 
 that Mr. Jefferson was a greater man than Jesus 
 Christ, &c. Statements which disgust a large 
 proportion of this community, quite as much as 
 they can you or myself; and yet my observations 
 lead me to the conclusion, that deism is the only 
 religion likely to become preponderating in this 
 republic. 
 
 Havhig now visited four of the most populous 
 and celebrated cities in the United States, I think 
 myself able to assert, without leading you much 
 into error, that rarely other than the second best 
 European articles can be purchased in their shops; 
 
40 
 
 but as the people know no comparison, they are 
 themselves deceived as to the goodness. 
 
 All clothing is excessively expensive ; and a 
 coat of the finest and best materials is about dou- 
 ble the price of a shnilar one in England : hats 
 and boots are in the same proportion. 
 
 Before closing this letter, I must mention an 
 anecdote repeated to me by a young Englishman 
 of the very first connexions, and which does in- 
 finite honour to the American character. I think 
 he told me it was at Barnham's table-d'hote, in 
 Baltimore, that one of our countrymen l)eing most 
 grossly and unprovokedly attacked about his 
 government, his nation, his politics, &c.; and 
 having in vain endeavoured to stop the torrent 
 of abuse, appealed to the company at large as 
 to the propriety of such usage towards an un- 
 offending stranger; when many individuals seized 
 the assailant, and kicked him out of the room 
 into the street ; declaring he had outraged the 
 whole party by his disgraceful conduct. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, &c. 
 
41 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 HUDSON RIVER — PASSENGERS IN STEAM-BOATS — ALBANY — 
 COHOES FALLS — ERIE CANAL — MOHAWK RIVER — UTICA — 
 ROADS — TRENTON FALLS — VALUE OF LAND — PRODUCE AND 
 LABOUR. 
 
 Utica, May 27, 1827. 
 DEAR ' — , 
 
 My desire of seeing as much of this interesting' 
 country as possible, caused my second visit to 
 New York to be a very short one ; and embark- 
 ing in a steam-boat as big as a frigate, but draw- 
 ing only four feet water, we pushed up the Hudson 
 at the rate of eleven knots the hoiu'. As nobody 
 thinks of going the 150 miles to Albany by any 
 other mode of conveyance, upwards of 200 pas- 
 sengers were on board ; the total demand for 
 each, including breakfast, dinner, and supper, 
 being only sixteen shillings ; and for what I 
 know, the two or three other daily boats up the 
 river were equally cheap and well attended. 
 
 The Hudson is a noble river ; something less 
 than a mile wide, where the curious natural bar- 
 rier called the '^ Palisades,^' composed of a sort 
 of hard columnar rock, fifty or sixty feet liigh. 
 
42 
 
 forms its western bank for seven or eight leagues ; 
 and then expanding its surface to what the old 
 Dutch settlers used to call a sea. But its shores 
 are never swampy ; and are adorned with a con- 
 tinual succession of villages, farm-houses^ citizens' 
 seats, cultivation, and orchards. 
 
 A ridge of rocky hills, 700 or 800 feet high, 
 contracts its waters considerably, at a distance of 
 forty miles from the city ; and its windings through 
 that long devious defile, where some precipices 
 are perpendicular, others steep and stony, and 
 all partially covered with stunted trees, is really 
 beautiful. It is called " the Highlands ;" and 
 the scenery is much improved by a few rocky 
 islets ; on one of which formerly stood a fort, 
 but at present a light-house. 
 
 About the centre of the pass, on a level pro- 
 montory which juts out in a remarkable manner, 
 is the military college of the United States. It 
 is named West Point, and has several stone 
 buildings more than one hundred ^eei above the 
 river, over whose course it has a commanding 
 view, both up and down the stream. 
 
 This establishment is for 260 students, sub- 
 jected to a severe discipline ; and is well kept 
 up, so as to ensure good officers for the engineers 
 and artillery. The stone ruins of Fort Putnam 
 are above the college, having rather a picturesque 
 appearance ; and neat monuments have been 
 
43 
 
 raised to the memory of Kociusko and others ; 
 while the surrounding country is pecuUarly in- 
 teresthigv, from recollections of the war of inde- 
 pendence and the lamented fate of Major Andre. 
 
 Newburg is a flourishing town of 2500 inha- 
 bitants, on the west bank of the river ; and the 
 boat passed many villages before reaching the 
 city of Hudson, which probably has nearly dou- 
 ble that number. This place was founded by 
 the Dutch, and does great credit to their taste ; 
 for exactly opposite, ten or twelve miles more to 
 the westward, rise the finely-marked and woody 
 Catskill mountains. 
 
 Persons in the steam-boat differed much as to 
 the height of those mountains ; but T doubt any 
 point of their outline being more than 2500 feet 
 above the water ; for the rare appearance of 
 elevated peaks in the vast countries of North 
 America, is apt, I think, to make the traveller 
 magnify those he does meet with. 
 
 On one of the summits of the Catskill is a large 
 summer hotel, called the Pine Orchard ; and I 
 miderstood some of the scenery around it was 
 highly romantic and worthy of a visit. 
 
 The freedom of intercourse and equality of 
 privileges, studiously affected in all 'public con- 
 veyances and hotels of the Union, often gives a 
 man an opportunity of mixing with a class of 
 society he never had associated with in Europe ; 
 
44 
 
 and on these occasions 1 have scarcely ever re- 
 marked any gross vulgarity;, or any rude attacks 
 on me as a foreigner. Those disao-reeable de- 
 viations from good breeding, such as cutting the 
 butter^ cheese, potfitoes, or tarts with their own 
 knives, 1 endeavoured to rectify, by lielping my- 
 self from a part not already invaded; and without 
 
 agreeing exactly with our Irish friend , tliat 
 
 " the only pure English is spoken in Dublin/' it 
 cannot escape observation, how entirely free the 
 lower orders of Americans are from the pro\ in- 
 cialisms of what they kindly term " The Old 
 Country.'^ 
 
 The peculiarities oi guess, reckon, calculate , 
 •pretty considerable, privileges of water , consi- 
 derable dry, and often dropping the monosylla- 
 bles, sound rather odd to me in conversation, 
 but have nothing offensive ; and the same may 
 be said of engine, genuine, and similar words, 
 which we in Britain pronounce short. 
 
 There is one practice, however, besides cigar- 
 smoking, so general, even among the better 
 classes of these republicans, that I may almost 
 term it universal ; and which, in my opinion, 
 is particularly disgusting and ungentlenmnly — 
 it is chewing tobacco ! 
 
 Picture to yourself — what I have often wit- 
 nessed — well-educated and well-dressed young 
 men of fortune, when endeavouring to render 
 
45 
 
 themselves agreeable to ladies, who would shine 
 in any society by their vivacity and personal 
 attractions, have been obliged to shift their quids 
 from cheek to cheek, as suited their articulation 
 or convenience ; have turned their heads con- 
 tinually in order to squirt out a quantity of dark- 
 coloured saliva ; and with an open penknife in 
 their hand, have alternately picked their teeth 
 and their nails. 
 
 The flounces and dresses of females are con- 
 tinually being soiled by the spittle, which is 
 lying about in every direction ; and what is sin- 
 gular enough, I have seen most respectable men 
 actually turn from the side of the vessel over 
 which they were leaning, purposely to spit on 
 the boards ; fearful, I suppose, that they might 
 not otherwise have been known to be adepts in 
 so elegant an accomplishment. 
 
 Albany is situated on the steep slope of a 
 small hill, with some wide and good streets, not 
 remarkable however for their cleanliness ; but 
 which contain many handsome buildings of brick, 
 and a few of stone. The Hudson is there about 
 one-third of a mile across, with a tide of nearly 
 three feet ; yet the channel is so continually get- 
 ting choked up, as to prevent, in the dry season, 
 the larger steam-boats from coming within four 
 miles of the city ; and a short canal is seriously 
 talked of to obviate the difficulty. 
 
46 
 
 Larfi^e docks and wharfs, in the true Dutch 
 taste, are formed in the bed of the river ; and 
 several low islands of pasture and trees^ divide 
 the stream in the vicinity. This town is the seat 
 of g-overnment for the state of New York^ and 
 contahis about 18,000 people, whose wealth and 
 numbers increase yearly ; but it was the first 
 spot in the republic where I had met with beg- 
 gars ; and I am sorry to acknowledge they were 
 Irish. It is a remark made in every society, and 
 every village of this immense country, that the 
 Scotch, English, Germans, and Dutch, all get 
 on and thrive ; but the Irish labourer very rarely 
 attains independence, changing only the nature 
 of his toil, from the hackney coachman to the 
 porter, the pavior, or the hired drudge. 
 
 The hotels in Albany are equally comfortable 
 with the others I had met with ; and, as usual, 
 I found the inmates divided into political parties 
 and factions. For tlie mass of the people here 
 are more addicted to such discussions and dis- 
 putes, than even my good countrymen at home. 
 Some declared vehemently that the legislature 
 was both formed and ruled by the back-settlers, 
 while trade and manufactures were without re- 
 presentation or protection ; others asserted that 
 agriculture alone ought to be favoured, and the 
 import duties on goods should be reduced one- 
 halt" : but every body joined in the most furious 
 
47 
 
 abuse of a clergyman at Boston, who had recently 
 dared, they said, contrary to the ordinances of 
 God and man, to marry a white girl to a free negro. 
 
 Excellent horses and gigs can be hired at 
 Albany, and I drove in one of them over a very 
 bad road, to see the Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk. 
 A little to the north of the town, I passed the good 
 brick mansion of the " Patroon," or head of the 
 Rensselaer family, one of the largest and richest 
 landowners in America ; and close to it the Erie 
 Canal falls into the Hndson. 
 
 This noble work is 360 miles in length ; and 
 by the means of eighty well-constructed stone 
 locks, is raised 662 feet to the height of Lake 
 Erie. It is forty feet wide at the surface, four 
 feet deep ; and barges of 150 tons with flour, 
 salt, and the other productions of the western 
 countries, besides covered tow-boats, are con- 
 stantly passing it. This canal, together with 
 the northern one for Lake Champlain, cost rather 
 less than £2,000,000 ; a sum which the tolls will 
 very speedily repay. But it is impossible not 
 to admire the energy and public spirit of the 
 state of New York, which commenced and 
 finished so vast an undertaking, although refused 
 assistance by the Congress at Washington. 
 
 At the village of Gibbonsville is a national 
 depot of arms and stores for the northern and 
 eastern section of the Union ; which, by its neat- 
 
48 
 
 ness and good arrang-ement^ does great credit to 
 the government. On the opposite side of the 
 river is Troy ; one of the best built and most 
 thriving towns in the country, with a population 
 of 8000. 
 
 Steam ferry-boats ply across continually; and 
 immediately behind that place are green pasture 
 hills, some hundreds of feet high, besides the 
 deep woody glen and cascade of Ida. To other 
 spots in the vicinity such classical names as 
 Olympus, &c. are given ; which appears to me 
 rather pedantic, where there is not the slightest 
 resemblance to Asiatic climate, customs, build- 
 ings, or people. 
 
 The river Mohawk, is from 250 to 300 yards 
 across, just above its junction with the Hudson ; 
 and after rushing down a short declivity, pre- 
 cipitates itself over a ledge of black slate rock, 
 seventy-six feet high. In one spot a large mass 
 l)rojects some feet down the stream ; and over 
 this the water trickled in ten thousand silvery 
 veins, while the beams of the sun formed a 
 beautiful rainbow on the white foam. 
 
 The best situation for viewing the scene, is 
 from among a few trees on the southern cliff; 
 and as I had never before witnessed so vast a 
 fall of water, 1 was undoubtedly struck with 
 mingled sensations of pleasure and awe; but I 
 know many Lilliputian cascades in England and 
 
49 
 
 Wales, whose accompaniments of wood and 
 rock make them infinitely more picturesque than 
 the mighty torrent of the Cohoes. 
 
 The road from Troy to Schenectady (fourteen 
 miles) I found almost impassable, and very little 
 of the woods cleared for cultivation ; but the 
 environs of the latter town, which, not many years 
 back, was one of the outposts of civilization, af- 
 forded a charming landscape of richness and 
 industry. The place itself has wide straight 
 streets, with numerous shops, inns, a college, 
 and about 5000 people ; who complained most 
 bitterly that the Erie Canal had destroyed their 
 carrying trade to Albany. 
 
 A tow-boat, neatly fitted up with a library, 
 beds, &c. conveyed me the eighty miles to Utica ; 
 the charge, including three good meals, being 
 only fourteen shillings ; and the sole incon- 
 venience that of stooping to avoid the low bridges 
 when I walked the deck, or rather roof; as they 
 cross the canal much more frequently than there 
 is the least necessity for. Three days before 
 my arrival, an unlucky French passenger hearing 
 the usual cry of '^'^ Look out, look out,'' thrust his 
 head out of the nearest window to see the fun, 
 and very narrowly escaped with his life, getting a 
 most violent blow from the buttress. 
 
 The Erie Canal winds up the valley of the 
 Mohawk, a little above the river ; and nothing 
 can be more pleasing than the views on every 
 
 E 
 
00 
 
 side : small hills of wood and cultivation; vil- 
 lages rising into size and regularity, as if by 
 magic ; a healthy and numerous population, 
 ready to answer questions with civility, and 
 guessing that 1 came from the ^' Old Country 
 far away," reckoned I might perhaps know such 
 and such places in England. 
 
 The houses are all of painted planks, perfectly 
 clean, and amply furnished with tables, chairs, 
 bedsteads and bedding', curtains, crockery-ware, 
 and kitchen utensils ; while an abundance of 
 bread, meat, fowls, tea, coftee, eggs, butter, 
 cheese, beer, cider, and spirituous liquors, can 
 be purchased without difficulty. 
 
 After traversing (ifty miles the scene changed; 
 a mere rocky gorge, scarcely allowing room for 
 the river, canal, and puljlic road, wound between 
 woody precipices of granite, 600 or 700 feet high; 
 and there the Mohawk rushed down a continua- 
 tion of rapids, its white foam beautifully con- 
 trasted witli the foliage and trunks of trees. It 
 is named '' The Little Falls ;" and tlie cheerful 
 village above has several hotels for sunnner 
 visitors, with a stone aqueduct for a branch cut 
 to the canal. A thick and high wall rising from 
 the very bed of the river, supports at this place 
 the canal itself; but it soon after enters on the 
 rich tract called the " German Flats," which is 
 evidently an alluvial formation. 
 Utica is a new and handsome town, of 7000 
 
51 
 
 inhabitants, with wide paved streets, lamps, and 
 footways ; houses of brick, sometimes faced with 
 stone, Hbraries, print shops, lottery offices, 
 capital iims, and shops, displaying to the best 
 advantage, and with much taste, every species 
 of merchandise. I have seen many well-dressed 
 women here, purchasing or turning over the 
 different muslins and trinkets, vv'ith as much 
 satisfaction as those iu England ; and ap- 
 parently quite as contented to walk with 
 parasols for the purpose of shopping, as our 
 fair countrywomen are to drive in their carriages. 
 
 The great vale in which Utica stands, is rich 
 in pasture, arable, and woodland ; is adapted 
 to every species of husbandry ; has already 
 much productive cultivation, and great numbers 
 of sheep and cattle. It is also nearly in the 
 centre of the state of New York ; therefore I have 
 taken a good deal of pains to ascertain the gene- 
 ral prices of the vicinity, and believe the follow- 
 ing information is tolerably correct. 
 
 An acre of land under cultivation, is from 
 £3 to £10, according to its situation relative to 
 the town ; a good gig or saddle horse, from 
 £16 to £20 ; a light waggon used as our taxed 
 carts, £7 or £8 ; a cow in milk, £5 ; a bushel 
 of wheat, 3.9. 3d.; of Indian corn, 2.9. ; ofoat.s, 
 1*. 6c/. ; of best potatoes, l.S'. 3d. ; of ajJples, 
 from 2s. to 4s. ; a cord of fire-wood, 8*. to lO^.,* 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 beef 4^d. ihe pound ; mutton, 3d. ; a turkey, 
 or two fowls, from 9d. to 1*. 
 
 A g-ood carpenter or blacksmith will gain 
 from four to five shillings daily ; a mason, from 
 five to six shillings ; an ostler, gardener, or 
 labourer, from two to three shillings, besides 
 their food. All articles of dress and clothing 
 are very dear ; as they chiefly come from Eu- 
 rope, and pay a heavy import duty. 
 , Yesterday I wished to go about fourteen 
 miles to the north, in order to see the Falls at 
 Trenton ; and was recommended to hire a light 
 one-horse waggon without springs, instead of a 
 gig. Lucky it was I did so ; for in my life I 
 never met with such a road and such ruts ; but 
 as the wetness of the spring had prevented the 
 possibility of mending it, the turnpike was thrown 
 open and no toll demanded. 
 
 They make use here of the droll phrase 
 " fixing the roads ;" which means, that when 
 the frozen snow has passed away and the fine 
 weather regularly set in, the dirt is scraped into 
 the ruts, the holes are filled up, and the whole, 
 when rolled, becomes smooth and firm until the 
 rains recommence. Should a coach or waggon 
 attempt to use these roads too soon after the 
 melting of the snow, they sink to the axle ; 
 flounder from bad to worse, and are only pre- 
 vented from oversetting by cords fastened at 
 
53 
 
 the top, and pulled on each side, according to 
 circumstances. 
 
 I have myself seen a turnpike road near this 
 place actually ploughed and rolled ; that being 
 considered the easiest way to " fix" it ; and it 
 really is at this moment as hard and excellent 
 as could be wished. 
 
 On this excursion, when I had at last dragged 
 through the meadows and jolted up a long hill, 
 I enjoyed a delightful view over an extensive and 
 diversified country, without however any eleva- 
 tion in the wide expanse which approached the 
 proportions of a mountain ; and my impression 
 decidedly was, that about an eighth of this dis- 
 trict is cleared and under tillage. Each succeed- 
 ing winter, thousands of acres are denuded of 
 timber ; the stumps standing several years above 
 the ground till they dry, get burnt, rot, and are 
 grubbed up ; while in the mean time the farmer 
 ploughs the soil between the roots, and gets a 
 much better crop than under such circumstances 
 I had thought possible. 
 
 The prospect reminded me of some of the 
 more level and woody parts of Hertfordshire ; 
 and when talking with those I overtook or met, 
 I was obliged to look at the stumps of trees 
 among the young wheat, the great proportion 
 of dark firs, mingled with the beech, birch, and 
 sugar maple, or the zig-zag fences of split 
 
54 
 
 trunks, before I could believe myself 300 miles 
 ill the interior of America. 
 
 These Virginian fences^ as they are called, 
 have a strange appearance to an Englishman, 
 being large trees split into four or five pieces 
 of perhaps thirty feet long, and then piled upon 
 each other at a sufficient angle, to make the 
 upright forks almost needless. I have seen 
 tv/elve, even fourteen, of these rude beams one 
 above another ; a sure sign that wood is of no 
 value, and that a little ground more or less is of 
 no manner of consequence. 
 
 There are several commodious taverns along 
 the road, and civilization is making giant strides 
 in every direction of what was very recently a 
 wilderness. Trenton is in a rich meadow, wa- 
 tered by a rivulet, and is a larger village than 
 usually met with so far from the canal and more 
 frequented routes, but the Falls are still two 
 miles and a half farther in the woods, where, 
 to my utter astonishment, T found an hotel con- 
 taining every comfort and luxury that may attract 
 the sunnner tourists. 
 
 A deep and narrow ravine of dark lime rock, 
 the precipitous sides of which looked almost as 
 if regularly built of rounded stones, while the 
 tops and fissures were thickly overgrown with 
 cedar, fir, and various shrubs, contains four 
 diflcreut falls, all very pleasing, but two more 
 
55 
 
 particularly so from their height and sheet of 
 water. A hut for refreshments has been erected 
 on a crag above the principal cascade, the 
 streaai of which may be fifty yards wide^ and 
 pours down with great violence a large body of 
 water. The height is probably thirty feet_, partly 
 unbroken and partly discovering the rock ; the 
 torrent then rushes over several smooth slabs, 
 which strongly resemble artificial steps, and 
 again falls thirty or forty feet, forming one suc- 
 cession of rapids and whirlpools to the next 
 leap. 
 
 The whole scene is highly picturesque, infi- 
 nitely more so than the Cohoes, but it still wants 
 those accompaniments of vast masses of mis- 
 shapen rock, and aged oaks stretching their 
 mouldering trunks or boughs across the chasm, 
 which so commonly gratify the eye among the 
 rivulets in the west of England. 
 
 The limestone at Trenton contains many va- 
 rieties of shells and animals, of which the pro- 
 prietor of the hotel has obtained a considerable 
 collection; and I could not help reflecting while 
 rambling far from the house amidst glens and 
 woods so silent and so deserted, that less than 
 thirty years ago my reveries would have pro- 
 bably been broken by the yell, the tomahawk, 
 and the scalping knife. 
 
 I have certainly seen pigeons in tolerable 
 
56 
 
 numbers in Canibridg-eshire and other places, 
 but I never fully understood the import of a 
 " flight of pigeons" till 1 came into the vicinity 
 of Utica: they absolutely darkened the heavens, 
 stretching for miles in one vast phalanx, till the 
 eye could trace them no longer : men, women, 
 and children turned out with guns, nets, sticks, 
 and even stones. The multitude slaughtered 
 was immense, and yet such were their numbers, 
 that no diminution apparently took place. The 
 flesh is good eating, and the whole time of their 
 remaining in a neighbourhood is a jubilee for the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Yours very truly. 
 
57 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 INDIANS— MEALS WHEN TRAVELLING — DISCIPLINE OF JAILS- 
 LAKES — FREEMASONS — ROCHESTER — DWELLINGS — LAW OF 
 INHERITANCE— FALLS OF THE GENESEE RIVER. 
 
 Rochester, Jane 1, 1827. 
 DEAR , 
 
 Here am I sitting in one of half a dozen ex- 
 cellent hotels, with iced lemonade, as well as 
 the whitest spermaceti candles before me, and 
 in a town of 9000 inhabitants, a Birmingham in 
 miniature, where seventeen years ago not one 
 single tree had been felled by the axe. 
 
 But I have hitherto given you a connected 
 account of my movements in America, and will 
 therefore return to Utica, from whence my last 
 letter was dated. The Erie Canal there takes a 
 long bend to the northward, through aguish 
 swamps, which the increasing navigation is but 
 just occasioning to be cleared and settled ; so I 
 determined to avail myself of the stage coach, 
 which speedily conveyed me past the flourishing 
 villages of Hartford, Whitehouses, Westmore- 
 land, and the large college of Hamilton, situated 
 oil a fine rising ground. I must here mention, that 
 
58 
 
 I have scarcely ever found an assemblage of a 
 few houses in this state^ without cither a na- 
 tional school or some establishment for edu- 
 cation ; and the meeting of an inhabitant who 
 does not understand reading, writing, and arith- 
 metic, is a very rare occurrence indeed. 
 
 On this route I first saw cultivated hops in 
 America^ and remarked in numerous directions 
 small rivulets, which afforded great facility for 
 water power ; an advantage this industrious 
 people have eagerly turned to account in saw- 
 mills^ corii-mills, factories of cotton, woollen, 
 paper, and oil. Vernon is perhaps the most 
 eligible site in all that neighbourhood^, is well 
 built and rapidly increasing, but westward of it, 
 the v.'ilderness abnost touches the road; culti- 
 vation is scanty and badly conducted, and the 
 aspect of every thing is changed for the worse. 
 
 This, I was told, was owing to our being 
 within a ^^ reservation," or tract of land still 
 occupied by the Indians^ and we soon arrived at 
 the poor-lookuig village of Oneida Castle. Near 
 this spot was the great council grove of the tribe, 
 and some few hundred families still fondly cling 
 to the soil, but deprived of fishing, by the dams 
 for machinery on the streams, and of hunting 
 by the absolute scarcity of game ; they cut a 
 most miserable appearance indeed : they are na- 
 turally idle and lazy, hating agriculture, as is 
 
59 
 
 clearly evinced by the state of their fences and 
 farms, and pick up a scanty subsistence by 
 making mats^ baskets^, moccaseens^ or other 
 trifles. 
 
 There is a church built for them at Oneida^ 
 and a missionary appointed to preach in it on 
 Sundays^ for they in general call themselves 
 Christians ; and I understood, they not only 
 conduct themselves with great propriety during 
 divine service, but to induce them to learn 
 English, one is ahvays appointed to retranslate 
 the clergyman's Indian discourse, paragraph by 
 paragraph, for the benefit of the white settlers 
 who attend. 
 
 I had no opportunity of ascertaining the above 
 fact, or whether they really do sing the hymns 
 in a peculiarly impressive and pleasing manner; 
 but every person I conversed with about this 
 remnant of the once powerful tribes of the 
 Iroquois, or Five Nations, assured me of their 
 unalterable honesty ; a stick placed across the 
 door of a hut renders its contents sacred to them 
 for months : I also heard they were quiet and 
 peaceable when not intoxicated ; dreadfully 
 afraid of a white man, who with a switch could 
 drive away a group of them at any time, and 
 that the women always refused any assistaiice 
 during the pains of labour, retiring to the woods 
 in summer and to a solitary hut in bad weather. 
 
60 
 
 The state legislature has purchased up by 
 far the larger portion of the different reserved 
 lauds^ and now acts on a system of justice as 
 well as prudent humanity. The interest of the 
 price agreed on is paid annually to the Indian 
 proprietors, who whenever they acquiesce in 
 the measure, are also removed to new settle- 
 ments on the shores of Green Bay and Lake 
 Superior. 
 
 Those I saw were of a dark copper colour, 
 often strong and tall, but in dirty ragged 
 dresses, half European, half Indian. Some of 
 the young women w^ere decidedly pretty ; ge- 
 nerally a blanket was wrapped round them, and 
 a few had large ornaments, apparently of silver. 
 
 Their infants were tightly bound in wrappers 
 to a board, so as to have no possibility of 
 moving, and then slung to their backs. 
 
 The attempts to civilize Indijins and turn 
 them to agriculture appear to me, as far as I 
 have yet had an opportunity of observing or 
 inquiring into, a complete failure; for in re- 
 signing the better qualities of the savage, they 
 have only adopted the most vicious propensities 
 of their conquerors. They wander aljout a listless 
 and despised race, reside in wretched log huts, 
 and in dress and filth are like the worst descrip- 
 tion of gipsies or tinkers : and really when in- 
 dividuals assert that Europe only shews the re- 
 
61 
 
 mains of better days, while here all is cheering* 
 improvement, they should pause, and remember 
 the living ruins which America exhibits. Both 
 hemispheres have much to boast of, and no doubt 
 also much deserving of animadversion. 
 
 The Oneida Reservation is a fine tract of land ; 
 a continued succession of liills and valleys, from 
 one of the highest of which, I looked back over 
 the level country to where the granite ridge 
 crosses the Mohawk at Little Falls. It is a vast 
 natural basin, and the conclusion seems rational 
 of its having been another of those immense 
 Iresh-water lakes still so connnon on this con- 
 tinent. 
 
 When the river Mohawk burst its rocky bar- 
 rier, the soil became gradually draiued and 
 covered with forest, while the waters receded to 
 the present Lake Oneida, which is about forty 
 miles long and eight or ten across. I am told 
 here that such will probably be the case with 
 Lake Erie some centuries hence, as the Falls of 
 Niagara are gradually wearing away the lime- 
 rock which obstructs their mighty torrent, and 
 the surface of Ontario is below any part of the 
 bed of its sister lake, which has been fathomed. 
 
 Near the beautifully-situated village of Chit- 
 tenningo are the remnants of a large petrified 
 pine-tree, some specimens of which, with shells 
 embedded in the wood, I obtained for your col- 
 
62 
 
 lection. At the large and regularly-bnilt village 
 of Maulins, the coach stopped for dinner ; and 
 having now advanced so far into the interior, 
 the following bills of fare may be taken as a 
 fair specimen of the accommodations and style 
 of living in this state. 
 
 We had already made a hearty breakfast on 
 veal cntlets, beef steaks, toasted ham, fish, both 
 broiled and pickled, roasted potatoes, eggs by 
 the dozen, tea, coffee, toast, rolls, excellent 
 bread, with bntter and cream that would have done 
 credit to a Devonshire larder, and all was served 
 round by the landlord's daughters in blue and 
 white china ; while a clean linen table-cloth, good 
 knives, forks, spoons, cut-glass tumblers and 
 castors, pickles, and the purest of salt, decorated 
 the table. Our dinner consisted of joints of 
 beef, mutton, and pork, pigeon and veal pies, 
 asparagus, with other vegetables and salad, tarts, 
 apple and peacli sweetmeats; while decanters of 
 brandy and Hollands, with ciystal water in jugs, 
 served to slake the thirst. The cider is some- 
 times very good, but it is most frequently spoilt, 
 for want of attention in picking out decayed 
 apples from the press. 
 
 Alas ! there were no French dishes ; no nice 
 little "portions," exactly measured out lor one ; 
 everv thin"* was ag"reeable to the honielv English 
 phrase of cut and come again, and no reasonable 
 
63 
 
 man could grumble at what was set before him. 
 The charges are usually eighteen-pence or two 
 shillings ; but those who wait neither expect nor 
 ask for any remuneration. Tea or supper is 
 much the same as the breakfast^ with the addition 
 of plenty of cakes and a sort of apple mar- 
 malade. 
 
 The next village we came to was called 
 Onondaga^ near which is another small settle- 
 ment of Indians^ and what is much more interest- 
 ing, several earthen entrenchments with ditches 
 have been discovered, similar, it is said, to others 
 that exist throughout the line of country which 
 extends from the lakes along the banks of the 
 Mississippi to New Orleans. This has opened a 
 fine field for conjecture, because the Indians are 
 said to have no traditions whatever about them, 
 and they were evidently constructed by a people 
 accustomed to a different sort of warfare. 
 
 In the swampy ground a few miles to the 
 northward and close to the Erie Canal, are the 
 towns of Syracuse and Salina, with the fine salt- 
 springs which supply their evaporation works : 
 the situation is considered peculiarly aguish 
 and unhealthy, but is found to improve as tlie 
 country is cleared of wood. Tiie road from 
 thence continued over a succession of small 
 hills and valleys, varying much in the nature of 
 the soil ; but cultivation is gradually advancing 
 
64 
 
 into the fine forest wliicli in that part of the 
 state covers five-sixths of the land. 
 
 The well-built village of Skeneateless is most 
 beautifully situated on a bank above a lake of 
 the same name, commanding- a sheet of water 
 fifteen miles long", and varying much in width : 
 it is a lovely prospect; the banks sloping gently, 
 and broken into numerous bays and woody head- 
 lands, with cleared spaces for farms in various 
 directions. Eight miles on this side of it, is 
 the large town of Auburn, with the usual wide 
 regular streets and foot pavements, and ex- 
 cellent houses and inns ; but for some unac- 
 countable reason, its site has been chosen so as 
 not to enjoy a view of the neighbouring Lake 
 Owasco. The coach stopped there for the 
 night, having been sixteen hours in traversing 
 the seventy-six miles from Utica ; not that we 
 had travelled slow, considering the indifferent 
 state of some portions of the road, but unfor- 
 tunately we carried the mail, and were detained 
 a tedious tune at each village post-office : for 
 instead of having a small bag for each, which 
 might be left without trouble, all the letters are 
 thrown indiscrhnhiately into one large sack, and 
 the passengers are detained while the whole are 
 looked over again and again. 
 
 The law, I was told, only allowed each post- 
 master five minutes to sort his letters; but it 
 
65 
 
 might just as well be silent on the subject, as 
 from a quarter to lialf an hour is always thus 
 occupied and lost. 
 
 You are aware, that the different states of 
 the Union are subdivided, like England, into 
 counties, parishes, &c. Auburn is the chief 
 town of Cayuga county, and not only contains 
 the usual court-houses and gaols of its own ju- 
 risdiction, but also- the state prison for the 
 western section of New York, calculated to 
 hold eleven hundred convicts. 
 
 This establishment is extremely well conducted. 
 Solitary confinement in cells seven feet by three 
 and a half, and seven feet high, together with 
 hard labour at various cheap and easily-learned 
 trades, is the system adopted : the head gaoler 
 has also discretionary power to inflict whippings 
 on the refractory, and to put any prisoner who 
 obstinately refuses to work into a sort of cistern 
 with a pump in it, where the water gradually 
 mounts, so that if the man will not employ him- 
 self to throw it out he must drown. 
 
 I asked if any convict ever had perished in 
 this novel kind of bath, and was told it was not 
 likely to happen ; as in the few cases when the 
 water had been allowed to reach the neck, the 
 prisoner had begun plying the pump-handle 
 most furiously, roaring out for assistance in a 
 terror that etiectually precluded the necessity 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 of his undergoing the experiment a second 
 time. 
 
 The daily labour of a convict is never found 
 to equal in results that of a free man, but the 
 produce goes to the state towards defraying the 
 ej^penses ; and it is said, that not only the ge- 
 neral conduct of the prisoners is good, but many 
 become permanently reformed. For my part, I 
 think the Americans show great good sense in 
 making their prisons places of deprivation,, hard 
 work, and punishment ; instead of following our 
 plan in England of rendering them most com- 
 fortable and eligible houses of entertainment 
 during the winter season. 
 
 Westward of Auburn, I found the country 
 more cleared and evidently longer settled than 
 within the Oneida Reservation ; the stumps of 
 trees were more generally grubbed up, and the 
 orchards better stocked with peach, apple, 
 plum, and pear trees, than any I had before 
 seen. It seems to have been a rule with the 
 settlers, to plant their hrst two or three cleared 
 acres with fruit trees, sowing their wheat or 
 other crops between the rows, as is practised 
 in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and nothing 
 could give a more cheerful aspect to their white 
 houses. Flower gardens with roses, woodbines, 
 and other creepers, so continually seen about 
 English cottages, have not yet been introduced 
 
67 
 
 here, and possibly the winters are too cold for 
 such plants. 
 
 The road passes Lake Cayuga on a low 
 wooden bridge or causeway one mile and a 
 quarter long, which is often damaged by the 
 floating ice. This magnificent piece of water 
 is forty miles in length, the shores low, but 
 pleasingly indented; and not only are a good 
 many sloops employed carrying timber^ flour, 
 &c. from the diff"erent villages, but a steam- 
 boat plies backwards and forwards from the 
 bridge to the town of Ithaca. This last-named 
 place is situated at the upper end of the lake, 
 and from it they propose to cut a canal to the 
 Susquehanna river, a distance of only thirty-one 
 miles; when it will become of great importance, 
 as commanding a water communication between 
 lakes Erie, Ontario, and the Chesapeake. Not 
 far from the town of Ithaca is a fine waterfall, 
 well worth an excursion in the steam-boat to be 
 visited. 
 
 The country between the lakes Cayuga and 
 Seneca is agreeably hilly, and the road runs 
 not far from the navigable river which unites 
 their waters. The village of Waterloo is larger 
 and handsomer than usual, but is far eclipsed 
 by the town of Geneva, which rises like an am- 
 phitheatre above the expanded basin of the 
 Seneca, whose limits extend thirty-five miles, 
 by three or four wide. 
 
 e 2 
 
68 
 
 Geneva is two hundred miles west of Albany, 
 and has a road through Ithaca direct to New 
 York. Its population is between 3000 and 4000, 
 many of whom are in tolerable affluence, and 
 keep pleasure-boats on the lake. The streets 
 are well built of brick houses^ as is also a large 
 square ; and the college forms a conspicuous 
 object on approaching from the eastward. 
 
 The next place we arrived at, after a delight- 
 ful drive of sixteen miles, was Canandaigua; 
 which stands on a hill about a mile from the 
 lake, and contains many really elegant-looking 
 houses, each being surrounded by a garden; one 
 of which, belonging to a Scotch gentleman, was 
 better laid out and possessed more varieties of 
 flowers than I had previously seen in America. 
 
 It is the county town of Ontario; and the whole 
 republic is in a ferment about the disa}jpear- 
 ance of a man named Morgan who was confined 
 in its gaol. The popular outcry is, that he has 
 been murdered by the freemasons for betraying 
 their secrets : and so strange is the infatuation, 
 that it is insisted he was drowned at the junction 
 of the Niagara river and Lake Ontario, a dis- 
 tance of one hundred and fifty miles, when the 
 deep lake close at hand would have answered 
 the purpose so much better. 
 
 Several respectable individuals have been 
 arrested on suspicion, and refused bail ; while 
 Morgan's widow is making a fortune by the 
 
69 
 
 publication at Baltimore of various pamphlets. 
 Orders have been sent to drag the water near 
 Fort Niagara for the body; but many persons 
 suppose Morgan is quietly living in concealment 
 on the proceeds of his alleged martyrdom. Be 
 this as it may, the poor freemasons are suf- 
 fering much obloquy, and in some instances 
 have been grossly attacked. 
 
 I have met here a fine young man, a gunsmith, 
 with half his lower lip bit off, and marks of teeth 
 on his cheek, fingers, nose, &c. He tells me, 
 that passing along the Erie Canal near Rome, a 
 few days back, the boat was detained ; and to 
 pass away his time, he walked into a house 
 where he saw a number of persons assembled, 
 who proving to be freemasons he soon quitted, 
 but was attacked in the street by half a dozen 
 fellows who kicked, bit, and beat him shame- 
 fully. 
 
 " However," continued he, " I marked the 
 man who eat my lip, for I seized him by the 
 hair, and getting my thumb in the corner of his 
 eye, I ''gouged' him." I really gave a cry of 
 horror, at the idea of such a monstrous barbarity, 
 which the narrator noticed by saying, " I don't 
 mean to defend the action, but I did not take 
 his eye quite out, only poked it half way from 
 its socket ; and let me tell you, when a man is 
 attacked by half a score, and ill-used as I was, 
 he is not over nice in his mode of escape." 
 
Before taking leave of the district of these 
 lakes, 1 cannot help remarking", that it is in my 
 opinion the most diversified and eligible tract of 
 country in America. There are, it is true, no 
 romantic rocks and precipices ; few of the hills 
 can be called high ; and much of the soil is poor 
 when compared with the alluvial flats ; but then 
 it is a healthy, ever-varying scene of woods, and 
 slopes, and water ; possesses several sulphur 
 or burning springs ; is situated in the heart of a 
 most powerful state ; abounds in fish ; and where 
 the partridge or native quail would soon,if a little 
 care was taken, become numerous. It was in 
 this vicinity that the Indians of the Iroquois or 
 Five Nations had fixed their principal settlements 
 some time previous to the revolutionary war ; 
 and as they most zealously espoused the part of 
 the British government, they committed several 
 horrible acts of devastation on the neighbour- 
 ing villages. To revenge which, and prevent 
 future incursions, General Sullivan marched 
 with an army of 5000 men, defeated the savages, 
 and having utterly destroyed their habitations, 
 drove them far to the westward. 
 
 Since that period the Mohawks and their con- 
 federates, once the most powerful tribe in North 
 America, have almost become extinct as a 
 nation. 
 
 The thirty miles from Canandaigua to Roches- 
 ter, is rapidly becoming settled and cultivated ; 
 
71 
 
 several villaofes have been formed, and the road 
 is undergoing repair, which, by the bye, it cer- 
 tainly needed. 
 
 I told you at the commencement of this letter, 
 that Rochester was quite a new town ; the oldest 
 person born in it being only seventeen years of 
 age. It owes its rapid increase and importance 
 to the rich agricultural country of Genesee, the 
 Erie Canal, and the great water power — or, as 
 the inhabitants term it, '' privilege of water" — 
 of the river which passes through it. 
 
 The streets are laid out wide and regular, so 
 that improvements to any extent may take place 
 hereafter ; but at present the houses have been 
 run up in such a hurry, as to have a most strag- 
 gling appearance ; while the stumps of trees are 
 still sticking two or three feet out of the ground 
 between them. From the attention show'n in the 
 cultivation of small gardens, and evergreens 
 against the dwellings, I should imagine many of 
 the people were newly-arrived emigrants ; and 
 that idea is further strengthened by the numer- 
 ous manufactories of different articles recently 
 established. 
 
 The generality of houses throughout the state 
 of New York are of neat planks, painted white, 
 with green Venetian blinds to the windows. The 
 smallest have usually the door in the centre, and 
 a sash window on each side, without any other 
 
72 
 
 than the ground floor. The second size have a 
 floor above, and are sometimes double ; while 
 the largest have two windows on each side the 
 door. It is rare to see a house carried higlier, 
 except those built in the towns, of brick ; and 
 should more room be required in the country, 
 wings and out-houses are added. 
 
 The cost, I was informed, varied from £50 to 
 £250, doors and windows included ; and though 
 nothing can look more forlorn and wretched than 
 an old unpainted wooden house ; yet every 
 dwellino- in these western countries is of so 
 recent a date, that all are clean, comfortable, 
 and cheerful ; even the few log huts I have 
 passed were plastered and had small windows. 
 
 The roofs are covered with wooden shingles, 
 cut into sizes about as big as slates ; and the 
 interior of the houses are not only often papered 
 and painted, but by no means deficient in furni- 
 ture. I am informed the inn I am at is not the 
 best in the town, but it is both large and clean, 
 and I never in England had a better four-post 
 bed and chamber conveniences. 
 
 I ought, in fairness, to tell you, that all my 
 American acquaintances declare my tour to have 
 been much more comfortable and agreeable, 
 because it was undertaken so early in the sea- 
 son. In fact, 1 heard at New York and other 
 cities^ that the number of travellers in July, 
 
73 
 
 August, and September, was so great, as fre- 
 quently to cause several to be put into the same 
 bed-room, besides other annoyances. 
 
 I relate things to you as I found them ; and 
 have certainly experienced nothing but ci\ility, 
 excellent accommodation, and amusement, 
 throughout my excursion. I have stated in 
 a former letter, that those who visit the interior 
 of this republic must conform to the customs 
 of the people ; for if they expect post-horses, 
 much individual attendance from waiters, or 
 dinners to be served up in private apartments, 
 they will meet with nothing but disappointments, 
 mortifications, and ridicule. 
 
 Visitors to Italy soon become reconciled to 
 discomforts, and fleas and vermin ; because they 
 can eat delicious ice and macaroni, see splendid 
 galleries of sculpture and paintings, and enjoy 
 the sun. Here, where there are an infinite 
 number of good things, it is only requisite to 
 forget two or three luxuries almost peculiar to 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Rochester, besides the shops and etceteras of 
 a bustling, trading town, has some neat sulphur 
 baths, and a museum. These latter are very 
 frequently met with in the United States ; and 
 although the intrinsic value of the contents of 
 each is trifling, yet they serve to diffuse a gene- 
 ral taste and knowledge of natural history among 
 
H 
 
 all ranks of society ; and are the means of pre- 
 serving many fossils and petrifactions which 
 would otherwise be lost. 
 
 How often is it lamented in England^ that 
 Roman tesselated pavements^ baths^ coins, tombs, 
 and other antiquities^ have been destroyed^ 
 throug-h the ignorance or carelessness of their 
 owners. Now I don't think a similar circum- 
 stance would occur here, because almost every 
 individual has seen things of alike nature valued 
 and taken care of in their local museums. 
 
 It is pleasing in tliese vast countries constantly 
 to see near the better farms, tomb-stones and 
 other mementos of the dead. They were erected 
 when no church, perhaps no neighbour, was to 
 be found within leagues ; and are generally 
 placed on a gentle rise, deeply shaded by over- 
 hanging trees. 
 
 The quantity of wheat produced in the Genesee 
 district is almost incredible : I heard, and can 
 scarcely credit the fact, that one person shipped 
 130,000 barrels of flour ; principally for the 
 British West India Islands. 
 
 A gentleman named AVadsworth, owns 40,000 
 acres of land in this neighbourhood, of which 
 between .5000 and 0000 are in the highest state of 
 cultivation: he has no children ; but by the laws 
 of the states, his fortune must be equally divided 
 among his five nephews and nieces. 
 
;5 
 
 Some wealthy citizens are beg-inning to evade 
 this enactment^ by making their intended heir 
 independent in their lifetime ; and he has also 
 his share of the residue at his relation's death : 
 so desirous are men to leave their posterity 
 richer and more powerful than their neighbours, 
 that an equality of goods would seem to be as 
 inconsistent witli the bias of the human mind, as 
 an equality of intellect is contraiy to the laws 
 of nature. 
 
 This distribution of property may be neces- 
 sary and advantageous under a republican form 
 of government ; but it is evidently erroneous 
 policy in a monarchy. Tn France^ for instance, 
 what can such a law tend to, but the impoverish- 
 ment of the nobility ; and making them sub- 
 servient to the court and minister, instead of 
 being a barrier between king and people, as 
 they ought to be. In Germany, where the titles 
 are given to all, and the wealth only to one, mat- 
 ters are much worse. 
 
 In short, there is no constitution framed on 
 more intelligent principles than that of England ; 
 or which practically works better. Yon see 
 I am still a genuine John Bull ; though I do find 
 some things to admire and praise out of the 
 narrow limits of my native country. 
 
 The river Genesee is about 150 yards across 
 at Rochester ; and just below the bridge, falls 
 
76 
 
 over a mass oflimestoiie, ninety feet perpendicu- 
 lar. This cataract is rendered more beautiful 
 by the convex form of the rock, and a small 
 island which extends to the very brink of the 
 precipice, where you can stand while the torrent 
 rushes down on each side of you, but it is by no 
 means a good point of view. 
 
 The fi\ll would be extremely picturesque had 
 not the timber on its immediate banks, and on 
 the island above-mentioned, been cut down ; 
 but settlers in a wilderness of woods have a 
 natural antipathy to the sight of a tree, and the 
 axe levels all without distinction. There are 
 many factories on its western side ; and to the 
 east a saw-mill actually overhangs the gulph. 
 On a projecting crag behind this building I could 
 almost touch the w ater ; and can only compare 
 its appearance, when rushing over, to a torrent 
 of flakes of falling snow. The beams of a setting 
 sun shining through the liquid curtain, and the 
 ever-chanofino' hues of the rainbow formed on 
 the rising spray, had a fine efl'ect. 
 
 A ramble down the banks of the stream, which 
 are very steep and woody, is highly interesting, 
 as new and pleasing views of the cataract can 
 conthuially be obtained through the foliage ; and 
 at the village of Carthage, one mile and a half 
 below, the river takes another leap of sixteen or 
 twenty feet, after which it tumbles down a sue- 
 
77 
 
 cession of small ledges^ eighty feet higli^, in a 
 most grand and imposing sheet of foam. This 
 is the finest scene of the kind I ever yet wit- 
 nessed ; and much enhanced by fishermen below 
 with their nets and liooks. 
 
 The accompanying rocks are of a reddish 
 sandstone ; the river tliere becomes perfectly 
 smooth, and from twelve to fourteen feet deep 
 the remahiiug six miles to Lake Ontario; so 
 that sloops come up, and by means of an in- 
 clined plane from tlie cliff, are loaded with salt,, 
 flour^ Virginian tobacco, and other goods for the 
 Canadian market. 
 
 I remain yours very truly, 8cc. 
 
78 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 RIDGEWAY — SETTLERS IN THE WILDERNESS— LEWISTON — BUF- 
 FALO — LAKE ERIE— OHIO — YANKEES— MR. OWEN'S SETTLE- 
 MENT — COMPLAINTS OF AGRICULTURISTS — LAM'S — LITTLE 
 CHEERFULNESS, 
 
 Falls of Niagara, June 6, 1827. 
 DEAR , 
 
 Few spots in the world can command such a 
 sublime — such an awful prospect^ as now meets 
 my eye from the balcony of the hotel where I 
 am sitting. A river two or three miles broad 
 is suddenly contracted to less than half that ex- 
 panse ; and then rolling over abrupt and steep 
 shallows,, in a most tremendous agitation of 
 whirlpools^ eddies, and contending waves, it 
 bounds over the precipice in one deep and 
 solemn roar. 
 
 As I am now, however, in Canada, and have 
 found by experience that the grandeur of the 
 scene before me becomes more perceptible to 
 my senses the longer I am acquainted with it ; 
 I will, as far as I can, aflford you the same oppor- 
 tunity for reflection, by first finishing my de- 
 
79 
 
 scription of the opposite state of New York, and 
 then reverting to the far-famed cataract. 
 
 On quitting Rochester the road was formed 
 for eighty miles along a mo st extraordinary 
 natural causeway, called the Ridge, composed of 
 sand and small gravel, which is not above ten 
 or twenty yards wide at top, and perhaps twelve 
 feet in elevation above the rich alluvial country, 
 to which it slopes very gradually on each side. 
 This was^ without doubt, a former boundary of 
 Lake Ontario, from which it is now distant about 
 ten miles ; and two miles farther south is another 
 boundary — a cliff of limestone 150 feet high, 
 running in a parallel direction, to where the 
 Niagara separates it from Queenston heights. 
 
 That section of country has been but recently 
 settled ; yet Parma, Clarkson, Gaines, Oak 
 Orchard, Ridgeway, and other villages, are 
 fast springing up : all have churches with lofty 
 wooden spires ; and many of the houses have 
 the English paling before them, with fine single 
 trees left standing to afford shade, and hives of 
 bees in the gardens. I was told they were lately 
 come over from " the Old Country." 
 
 The coach quitted the Ridgeway for a few 
 miles, to cut off a great angle ; and I there had 
 an opportunity of seeing the wilderness or 
 *^ bush," untouched by man, and in all its solemn 
 magnificence. 
 
80 
 
 The narrow road, formed of logs and earth, 
 shaking under the slow motion of the wheels, 
 gave a long straight opening through the trees, 
 and disclosed a ribbon of blue sky. To the 
 right and left it seemed as if a fowl could not 
 make way ; so thick was it, indeed, as to check 
 the rank vegetation natural to damp swampy 
 ground. The forest is composed of a variety of 
 species. Oak, elm, beech, niciple, and other 
 deciduous trees, generally cover tlie better soil; 
 cedar and larch are found in the most marshy 
 places ; the hemlock-fir, and pine, in rocky 
 sandy tracks. The loftiest timber may be 120 
 or 130 feet high ; below it is another growth of 
 seventy or eighty feet; a third of thirty or forty 
 feet ; and the interstices filled up with shrubs, 
 brushwood, &tc. 
 
 Into this solitary wild of woods one or two 
 poor settlers had just brought the axe : the 
 sight to me was novel and disheartening. A man 
 having made his bargain as to price per acre, 
 with the government, or proprietor of some spot 
 he takes a fancy to, creeps into the thicket with 
 his hatchet, and begins his laborious task. Down 
 fall the trees, some of two or three feet in 
 diameter, covering the whole space with their 
 trunks and boughs; the roots and stumps remain- 
 ing in the ground io rot. Some of the more 
 convenient logs he drags to the centre ; and. 
 
81 
 
 piling them one upon another, builds a square 
 hut; filling up the openings with mud_,and leaving 
 places for a door, and one or perhaps two light- 
 holes. Other logs form the floor and slophig 
 roof; w hich latter is covered with rushes, boughs, 
 turf, or any thing he can get. 
 
 His small stock of money purchases a bed, 
 kettle, and some crockery, which most probably 
 the bad weather and ague now make hidispensa- 
 bly necessary to him : perhaps he has no near 
 neighbours ; or if he has, they are hardened and 
 indifferent to misfortunes they have themselves 
 undergone and surmounted. 
 
 If the settler is fortunate enough to escape or 
 recover from the fever, he makes a log zigzag 
 fence round his open ground, and burns the resi- 
 due of the fallen timber ; then hoes between the 
 stumps, which if beech or maple, will decay in four 
 or five years, but if oak and chesnut, remain sound 
 for ten. His fruit trees he plants at regular 
 intervals, between the roots of the ancient occu- 
 piers of the land ; and sows his wheat, and pota- 
 toes, &c. under his orchard. He then turns to the 
 improvement of his house and fence, makes rude 
 tables and chairs, and learns to become a car- 
 penter. 
 
 When twenty-five acres of land are thus 
 cleared, he can support a large family in toler- 
 able abundance ; but should he have a hundred, 
 he is a thriving man. This, however, is an 
 
 a 
 
82 
 
 affair of years, and the purchase-money in nine 
 cases out of ten has not been paid. 
 
 Soon after the successful termination of the 
 Revohition^ a number of hidividuals_, mostly Dutch, 
 formed themselves into the " Holland Company," 
 and purchased, I believe, some millions of acres, 
 in the most western division of the state of New 
 York. The conditions on which they resold 
 the land to settlers have not been considered 
 sufficiently eligible ; and consequently very 
 little, comparatively speaking, has been cleared 
 and cultivated. 
 
 The terms are from two to three pounds per 
 acre, according to soil ; and if the money is not 
 paid down, no interest is demanded for the first 
 two years, but six per cent, the following six. 
 At the end of these eight years, if the cash is 
 not forthcoming, compound interest is added 
 to the principal, and another six years is al- 
 lowed ; after which period, if still unable to pay 
 the accumulated debt, the occupier forfeits his 
 farm altogether, and is turned adrift. 
 
 This is certainly fair according to law; but 
 I should have thought no man who had seen the 
 spot before the axe had been called in, witnessed 
 the industry necessary to clear and drain it, or 
 observed, as I have, the tenants of one or two 
 log-huts, stretched on their beds with an ague, 
 could find resolution to eject the debtor. 
 
 The resident agent of the Holland Company 
 
83 
 
 is an elderly Scotchman, and a hard taskmaster 
 he appears to be. He travelled some distance 
 along* the Ridgeway m the coach, for the amiable 
 purpose of " prosecuting according to law" 
 some children, who had thrown stones through 
 his windows and serenaded him with yells, be- 
 cause he had turned their father out of his farm. 
 He is a long-visaged, crabbed-looking person- 
 age, with enormous overhanging eyebrows; and 
 told us with much glee how he had found out 
 the perpetrators, and how he would make them 
 smart for it. 
 
 A respectable farmer in vain endeavoured to 
 deprecate his wrath, by saying he had known the 
 debtor many years, as a sober, hard-working 
 man, bringing up a large family ; for the old 
 fellow declared he would have law, if law was 
 to be got, and that the tenant was a poor devil 
 without a cent, and out he should go. This 
 harshness so exasperated the young man who 
 had '^'^only half poked out" his assailant's eye at 
 Rome, and who was also a passenger in the ve- 
 hicle, that I thought he would certainly have rob- 
 bed the Scotchman of his shaggy eye-shades; but 
 fortunately we had nothing beyond a wordy war. 
 
 I have since heard at Buffalo, that in the far- 
 thest parts of Ohio and other back settlements, 
 where the arm of the law does not reach so 
 surely, families are not turned out quite in so 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 unceremonious a manner; itmifflit be dansrerous. 
 A compromise there takes place ; the tenant 
 gives up the land he can't pay for, and the 
 landlord gives him 500 or 600 dollars for his 
 improvements and labour, log-hut, &c/J, With 
 this sum he goes \\ cstward, and becomes a pur- 
 chaser ; while his late tenement is sold to the 
 first emigrant who arrives with enough money 
 to commence comfortably. Thus, according to 
 my information, it is not very common to find a 
 man actually owning and occupying land which 
 he cleared himself. 
 
 My coach companion the " Gouger," gave me 
 to understand, in the course of conversation, that 
 he had lived many years in Upper Canada ; and 
 was then on his way from New England to in- 
 form the disaffected, that if they chose to make 
 a stand against the British Government, there 
 were from 10,000 to 20,000 Yankees quite tired 
 of their houses, and ready to join them. I na- 
 turally asked if the Canadians were much op- 
 pressed ; and he replied, '' Oh, no ! we pay 
 neither tithes nor taxes, only a nominal rent of one 
 penny in twenty shillings, and arc, in fact, quite 
 favoured and spoilt ; but it is the surest way of 
 preserving those privileges to kick up a row now 
 and then." 
 
 I had heard at New York and other towns on 
 my journey, that Upper Canada was in a state of 
 
85 
 
 almost open insurrection ; and now I am actually 
 in itj I can only wonder at such gross exaggera- 
 tions being prevalent. But a circumstance re- 
 lative to this colony, which has come under my 
 own observation, will possibly engage much of 
 your consideration. 
 
 I have met some highly respectable persons, 
 who, after enumerating the various advantages 
 of Canada, ended by stating, *' We left it how- 
 ever for the States, because in it there is no en- 
 couragement for exertion and industry ; every 
 one has enough, and will not labour for more ; 
 which occasions an apathy and listlessness to us 
 intolerable. Here, we have taxation and other 
 rates to provide for; and yet are not only more 
 comfortable, but gain more money likewise." 
 
 Lewiston is 320 miles from Albany, and on 
 the eastern bank of the river Niagara, which is 
 rapid even there, although seven miles below 
 the Falls. At that place the sloops from Lake 
 Ontario unload, to allow of the land portage 
 towards Lake Erie ; as the cataract impedes all 
 further navigation. 
 
 I was surprised not to hear the roar of the 
 water in the stillness of the night, at so short a 
 distance, but the wind was contrary ; and next 
 morning it was distinct enough. From Lewiston the 
 road winds up the limestone cliff I have described 
 as the ancient boundary of Lake Ontario ; ou the 
 
top of which is an extensive view over a flat sur- 
 face of woods ; and it is evident the river has 
 worn through the portion of the ridge which was 
 joined to Queenston heights, liaving no doubt, 
 at one period, formed its cataract at this spot, 
 which has gradually washed away the softer 
 rock, and thus receded. 
 
 The road next passes a lofty precipice, im- 
 pending over the now raging stream, and noted 
 for the destruction of a party driven over by the 
 French during the colonial wars. Close to it 
 some person has had the good taste to cut an 
 opening in the wood, which affords a distant, but 
 highly picturesque view of the Falls. 
 
 At the thriving village of Manchester is a 
 good hotel kept by a General ; but the twenty- 
 three miles from thence to Buffalo, is along a truly 
 infamous road, made of trunks of trees, and not 
 in sight of the river, but through a thick wilder- 
 ness, in which black bears, w^olves, and rattle- 
 snakes, are not unfrequent; and quails, also 
 black squirrels, are very numerous. 
 
 Buffalo is a handsome and improving towi^^ 
 just above the north-east end of Lake Eric, and 
 has been entirely rebuilt since the late war ; 
 which accounts for the streets being unpaved, 
 and want of footways. It contains 4000 inha- 
 bitants, two churches, a theatre, town-hall, and 
 several excellent inns ; among which, the one 
 
87 
 
 kept by Ratliburn, although constructed of wood, 
 is as extensive and elegant as can easily be met 
 with in any part of Europe. 
 
 I was often at a loss to comprehend how such 
 numerous houses of public entertainment could 
 exist with profit, in every little town of the 
 republic ; but it was explained to me, that the 
 proprietors not only possessed large farms, but 
 their houses served the three purposes of lodg- 
 ings, hotels, and mere eating-taverns. Thus at 
 Rathburn's, above forty persons have hired 
 apartments by the year, in preference to having 
 the trouble of servants and establishments ; and 
 above a hundred sit down daily to his dinnci'-table ; 
 so that with casual travellers and visitors to the 
 newspaper room, the most liberal landlord can 
 gain a livelihood. 
 
 The Erie Canal joins the lake at the village of 
 Black Rock, about three miles north of Buffalo ; 
 but as the stream of water at that point rushes 
 swiftly into the river Niagara, the cut has been 
 continued to the latter place. In its vicinity 
 also, is a large settlement of the half-civilized 
 Indians ; and another is between Lockport and 
 Lewiston. 
 
 Buffalo will certainly become, at some future 
 period, one of the most important towns in 
 America ; for from the light-house erected at 
 the mouth of its creek, the navigation of tlie 
 
88 
 
 fresh-water seas to the west and north-west is 
 said to be unimpeded by rapids or other ob- 
 structions for some thousands of miles. Lake 
 Erie itself is two hundred and seventy miles by 
 sixty broad^ and only two hundred feet deep ; 
 while the surface of that of Ontario is three 
 hundred and thirty feet below the Falls of Ni- 
 agara. 
 
 Steam-boats and sloops are continually con- 
 veying merchandise on Lake Erie; and some of 
 the sailors insisted, that a tide of a few inches 
 was perceptible at all seasons. A road runs 
 from Buffalo to Pittsburg, on the Ohio river, 
 thus opening an internal communication with 
 New Orleans on the Gulf of Mexico, and it is 
 even talked of cutting a canal in that direction. 
 
 While in Buflalo, I made very particular in- 
 quiries concerning the rapidly improving states 
 of Ohio and Indiana, the former of which has 
 sprung up to be the fourth, if not the third in 
 the Union. They are represented as vast woody 
 plains of a rich alluvial soil, but with very little 
 wholesome water, owing to the sluggish nature 
 of the rivers and creeks, which likew ise deprives 
 the settlers of many " privileges " for machinery. 
 Their population has been swelled not only by 
 new-comers from Europe, but from Massa- 
 chusetts, Connecticut, and other parts of New 
 England, where the people have lately been 
 
89 
 
 seized with such a mania for emigration, as to 
 attract the attention of their local governments : 
 like young birds^ which as soon as fledged and 
 old enough, quit their nests, and forget " kith 
 and kind : " so the Yankees, as their countrymen 
 call them, are found scattered over every section 
 of the Union as pedlars, hucksters, quacks, and 
 speculators. 
 
 They are a shrewd, intelligent race, much 
 more talkative and inquisitive than their neigh- 
 bours ; and if the accounts of the southern states 
 are to be credited, where Yankees are hated 
 and accused of exciting disturbances among the 
 slaves, they know how to drive a hard bargain, 
 and have fairly jostled the Jews out of the re- 
 public. 
 
 From a variety of anecdotes related in ri- 
 dicule of their parsimonious habits, I shall 
 select the following. A Yankee being far lo 
 the west, with his little cart of pedlery, found 
 the wheels wanted greasing, and stopped at the 
 next house for the purpose ; where he was sup- 
 plied so abundantly with the needful, that he 
 not only finished his job and rej^lenished his 
 grease-pot, but still had a great deal left. 
 After looking at the residue a few moments, he 
 turned to the good-natured giver, and said, '' I 
 calculate they may want some of this fat at the 
 
90 
 
 next hut, so I will just step over, and see what 
 they will give me for it." 
 
 They are chiefly descended from the secta- 
 rians wlio fled from persecution in the seven- 
 teenth century ; and some of the curious puri- 
 tanical names are still existing among them. 
 
 Of the philanthropic Mr. Owen's settlement, 
 called New Harmony, 1 have heard but a so-so 
 account. It appears, in truth, a most inhar- 
 monious society; for the healthy and indus- 
 trious do not relish that entire community of 
 goods and produce, which causes them to work 
 hard day after day for the purpose of feeding 
 the idle and sickly ; and it is therefore splitting 
 into almost as many divisions as there are fa- 
 milies, each taking care, while following the 
 old system, to benefit as much as possible by 
 the expenditure Mr. Owen has incurred in en- 
 deavouring to introduce a new one. 
 
 The farmers I have met with all declare, that 
 though they have abundance to eat and drink, 
 for any number of children, yet such is at 
 present the low value of produce, they cannot 
 gain any money; and that a man who has to 
 realize the price of his land, in addition to 
 earning a comfortable living, must find it a 
 most diflicult task, under even favourable cir- 
 cumstances, as he cannot convert his flour. 
 
91 
 
 sheep, and cows into cash. The late quarrel 
 therefore with Great Britain, which excludes 
 them from the West India islands is very un- 
 popular ; and yet as they now have the privilege 
 of bonding- their flour in Canada, the loss must 
 chiefly fall on the shipping' interests at Boston, 
 Charleston, Baltimore, &c. : for it is notorious, 
 that hitherto where the British flag* was seen 
 once in those seas, the American was met with 
 ten times ; their vessels being freighted with 
 flour, fresh meat and poultry, packed in ice, 
 eggs, kept sweet for any period by being covered 
 with salt, and other provisions. This valuable 
 trade is now lost to them, because their govern- 
 ment persists in levying heavy import duties on 
 foreign goods, in order to encourage the home 
 manufactures. 
 
 The overwhelming influence in the United 
 States is decidedly that of the agriculturists; and 
 they assert continually, " If we could only have a 
 market in England or elsewhere for our flour, 
 our cotton, tobacco, &c. we should never think 
 of employing ourselves in manufactures; for we 
 had rather earn the value of two shillings on 
 our own farms than two doUars in close build- 
 ings, as the wages of a master.^' 
 
 Law is as plentiful in the American republic 
 as in Great Britain, and the people seem more 
 litigious. It is a tluiving trade, and in almost 
 
92 
 
 every village^ the words '^ Attorney at Law 
 Office,'^ written in large characters against two 
 or three houses, infuses a reasonable degree of 
 terror into the passer-by. It is singular, when 
 independence was obtained, the opportunity of 
 getting rid of the old complicated system of 
 jurisprudence was allowed to be lost ; but jt 
 proves, I think, there were but few disinterested 
 patriots beside Washington ; and that the lawyers 
 associated with him were much more assiduous 
 in securing the loaves and fishes, than in rec- 
 tifying errors which had arisen from time and 
 obsolete usages. 
 
 Some few changes were made, and perhaps 
 the most important, the restricting the award of 
 death to three or four crimes only ; so that the 
 perpetrators, if discovered, are certain of meet- 
 ing their reward. We have, I think, in Britain 
 sixty or seventy difierent cases in which a like 
 sentence is recorded ; and then to obviate the 
 reproach, that our laws were written with blood 
 instead of ink, not above one out of three hun- 
 dred condenmed to capital punishment is left 
 for execution. 
 
 The Anglo-Americans still have however their 
 John Does, Richard Roes, and other legal fic- 
 tions ; and judges who are quite deaf and almost 
 childish from age, are still allowed to exercise 
 their high functions, because there is no ade- 
 
93 
 
 quale pension appropriated to their retirement 
 from office. 
 
 Gentlemen of large landed property are some- 
 times distinguished by the name of their estate, 
 wiiich sounds very aristocratical ; and the title 
 of squire is very commonly given to the owner 
 of the best house, but whether as the justice of 
 peace or not, I could not ascertain. By the 
 bye, I am told, very strange sort of characters, 
 and men whose attainments are not suited to 
 the situation, sometimes get appointed magis- 
 trates in the republic. 
 
 It may be so : for I know a wealthy county 
 in England where, since the obloquy thrown on 
 the unpaid magistracy, and Lord Sidmouth's 
 neglect in supporting gentlemen who had ac- 
 cepted the commission, the almost only active 
 member of the bench is so illiterate, as to have 
 written the following mandate against a culprit, 
 Hugh Hughes : — '' U'll take U Us, an hav im 
 well wiped." 
 
 In those parts of the Union I have visited, 
 the people appeared as healthy and rol)ust as 
 with us, and the only peculiarity I remarked 
 was, the number who had weak eyes and wore 
 spectacles. 
 
 That they have every reason to be a happy 
 people, and really are so, I think no candid 
 traveller will deny. But they certainly are not 
 
94 
 
 cheerful, seldom laughing or talking with each 
 other or strangers,, unless first spoken to ; and 
 the drivers of coaches or masters of boats, al- 
 though in the employment of the same person, 
 rarely notice each other in passing. 
 
 The French say, John Bull sometimes becomes 
 lively and good-humoured when well jolted in 
 a stage : but such is not the case with these re- 
 publicans, who are so intent on calculations of 
 profit and loss, as to have no time for commu- 
 nicativeness. 
 
 One circumstance I cannot forgive, the un- 
 grateful indifference, nay oblivion, with which 
 all classes of the community treat the memory 
 of Washington : he still has some admirers un- 
 doubtedly, and Boston as well as Baltimore has 
 a monument to his honour. But if it were not 
 that the Federative city is called Washington, 
 I do not believe his name would be uttered iii 
 society from year's end to year's end. 
 
 Neither do the revolutionary soldiers appear 
 to have been treated with liberality, according 
 to the statements which are frequently inserted 
 in the newspapers ; for though some of the 
 oificers got grants of land instead of their 
 arrears of pay, the privates received no renni- 
 neration. What a contrast to the splendid re- 
 ception and gifts bestowed on the Marquis 
 Lafayette ! 
 
95 
 
 On quitting- Buffalo, I proceeded to the neat 
 village at Black Rock, and got into a ferry- 
 boat, which is impelled by four horses treadhig 
 on a horizontal wheel, which gives motion to 
 the paddles ; but such was the rapidity of the 
 river, that though not, I think, half a mile wide 
 in that part, the boat was carried three quarters 
 of a mile down the stream in crossing. 
 
 I landed on the Canadian shore, close to the 
 ruins of Fort Erie, and found a neat coach ready 
 to convey the passengers along an excellent 
 road to this hotel. 
 
 Yours most truly, &c. 
 
96 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 FALLS OF NIAGARA — TUMULUS OF SKELETONS — LATH WAR- 
 ANECDOTES — INDIAN WARFARE. 
 
 Fulls of Niayara, June 12, 1827- 
 DEAR , 
 
 Those who visit this wonder of nature^ should 
 certainly take up their residence on the Cana- 
 dian side, in one of the two capital hotels built 
 in situations commanding views of the torrent. 
 
 I doubt whether the most faithful delineation 
 with the pencil could give any tolerably just 
 idea of the mighty scene below ; at least, those 
 sketches I have seen are stiff, unpleashig, and 
 unworthy of the subject. Nor is it easy to 
 write a description, and I must beg your in- 
 dulgence before I make the attempt, for if 1 
 give way to the feelings excited by what I now 
 see from my window, you will laugh at me as 
 an enthusiast; and as I cannot shake off those 
 feelings, I find it difficult to embody them in 
 proper language. 
 
 Wlien I first arrived at the cataract I was 
 
97 
 
 disappointed : I could not tell why, or what 
 ideas my imagination had formerly conjured up; 
 but the breadth of the object took off' from its 
 apparent height; and then its being curved in- 
 stead of straight, seemed to diminish its vast- 
 ness, and the fall was not in one expanse, but 
 divided by an island of some extent. The 
 longer I gazed, however, the more accustomed 
 my eye became to the magnificence of the scene; 
 and the more capable of appreciating the various 
 beauties of the parts, and the sublimity of the 
 whole. 
 
 On the eastern side a small stream has been 
 separated from the larger by a mass of rock, 
 and forms a fall called Montmorenci. It is 
 between the two great ones, and on so grand a 
 scale is every thing around, I for some time 
 considered it a mere silvery ribbon, undeserving 
 of much notice ; but on further examination, I 
 acknowledged that the Falls of the Clyde would 
 ■appear \ery insignificant by its side. 
 
 Stairs are constructed against the precipitous 
 cliffs ; foot-paths, seats, and ferry-boats have 
 been provided; in short, all that could gratify 
 Ihe most insatiable curiosity, and I made ample 
 use of these conveniences in my rambles, find- 
 ing at each point some new beauties to admire. 
 
 When the sun was bright, I have seen three 
 distinct rainbows playing their various hues on 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 the ever-changing form of the milk-white mist ; 
 which sometimes towers high into the air, at 
 others is driven down the stream, forming a 
 transparent or impenetrable curtain, according 
 to the denseness of the vapour. In thick or 
 rainy weather a gloom overspreads the whole 
 prospect; and at night, if the moon shines out, 
 it lends a softness and indistinctness to every 
 object, which is quite charming. But on every 
 occasion the same deep, solemn roar, unvarying 
 and unchangeable, tells that the accumulated 
 waters of the western regions are pouring be- 
 fore me. 
 
 Very soon after quitting Lake Erie, the river 
 is divided into two channels by some large 
 islands, but the streams unite again about four 
 miles above the cataract, forming a considerable 
 expanse, broken by woody headlands and inlets. 
 The water is clear as crystal, very deep, and 
 supposed to continue so to within less than a 
 mile of the precipice; while the surface is smooth 
 and silent, flowing onward with a swiftness 
 quite appalling to those who have seen the gulf 
 so near at hand. 
 
 Several individuals are recorded to have been 
 carried down the current within the last few 
 years; some by having attempted to row across 
 the river a few miles above, when they became 
 terrified at the rapid descent of their boat, and 
 
99 
 
 lost all further power of exertion; others by 
 falling asleep in their canoes^ which by some 
 accident got adrift and floated down. It is as- 
 serted;, that even the small steam-boat which 
 plies from the Chippewa Creek to Fort Erie had 
 a very narrow escape last summer. 
 
 As the immense moving body of water ap- 
 proaches the rocks which render its bed quite 
 shallow;, it takes a bend, and becomes much 
 narrowed; so that its endeavour to force a pas- 
 sage over the impediment it now meets, is at- 
 tended with a violence unexampled, and a noise 
 almost deafening : and the rocks being of lime- 
 stone, have been worn into ridges and hollows 
 which dash back the foaming waves, rendering 
 the agitation still more terrible. 
 
 The slope down which the river here preci- 
 pitates itself for the extent of nearly a mile, is 
 so very abrupt and imposing; that if the per- 
 pendicular fall did not exist, these rapids alone 
 w^ould be the grandest cataract in the universe. 
 
 The great Fall of Niagara is in the form of a 
 fish-hook. The eastern sheet of three hundred 
 and eighty yards, with the fine precipice of 
 Goat Island crowned with timber three hundred 
 and thirty yards, make the shank; while the 
 larger sheet, called the Horse-shoe, of seven 
 hundred yards, may be represented by the 
 curved portion of the hook. The heii^ht is a. 
 
 H2 
 
100 
 
 hundred and sixty feet; and the quantity of water 
 dashed over each minute, has been computed at 
 one million seven hundred and one thousand five 
 hundred and sixty-two tons and a half. 
 
 Some visitors prefer a station on the very 
 edge of the abyss, so as to look down on the 
 falling- water; others go further along the cliffs, 
 so as to have a front view; but I think the ca- 
 taract is seen to greatest advantage from the 
 boat when crossing the river. The ferry is so 
 close, and the water so agitated, as to have a 
 friglitt'ul appearance ; but it is at that spot quite 
 safe, while lower down the stream, even as far 
 as Queenston, a boat would inevitably be dashed 
 to pieces. 
 
 The river is projected over the ledge in one 
 unbroken sheet of water, and with such force 
 as to leave a space of about fifty feet between 
 it and the rock. Into this extraordinary cavern 
 the guide has formed a path along the top of 
 the slippery, shelving stones which have tumbled 
 from the wall; and on it the visitor nnist walk, 
 blinded by the spray, wetted to the skin, and 
 rendered deaf by the horrible noise. 
 
 If your breath does not entirely fail, it is pos- 
 sible to advance thirty or forty yards along this 
 singular footway; and almost as much more 
 over a smooth ledge of rock, tcM-minating in an 
 abyss of such depth as to render further pro- 
 
101 
 
 gress impossible. Tlie light of the sun pene- 
 trates dimly through the falling curtain of this 
 unique grotto; the roof is masses of limestone, 
 jutting out from the precipice, and which are 
 continually worn away by the torrent, so that 
 Mr. Forsyth, of the hotel, assures me the 
 Horse-shoe Fall has receded about a hundred 
 yards during the forty-two years he has resided 
 near it. 
 
 Perilous as a walk under the Fall appears to 
 be, there is not in reality much danger. Ladies 
 continually venture during the summer months ; 
 and many persons go to catch the eels, which 
 are found in great numbers sticking to the rock. 
 
 In winter the scene, I am told, has its own 
 peculiar beauties. Enormous pieces of ice float 
 down from Lake Erie, and are dashed over with 
 terrific violence ; the spray gets frozen and at- 
 tached to the trees and rocks, resembling tur- 
 retted castles, columns, every variety of shape ; 
 wild fowl get entangled in the rapids during 
 dark nights, and are picked up below, either 
 killed or with broken wings; and it would seem 
 there is a strong current of air as well as water 
 at the brink of the cataract, for birds flying 
 near it are often seen to fall as if powerless, re- 
 covering the use of their wings before they 
 reach the bottom. 
 
102 
 
 The Eastern or American Fall is not so tre- 
 mendously awful as the other ; but there is a 
 wooden bridge to Goat Island just above it_, 
 where you can stand in the centre of the rapids 
 and see the water tumble towards you in billows 
 of foam. Why it does not sweep the frail tim- 
 ber on which you stand over the precipice, is 
 almost incomprehensible; but itglides close under. 
 The man who first constructed this bridge must 
 have had nerves and talents rarely excelled. 
 
 One or two rocky islets amid these rapids 
 add greatly to the picturesque effect. Under 
 the shady foliage of one is an apartment for 
 billiards,, refreshments, and specimens of petri- 
 factions ; on another is a water-wheel ; and 
 under tlie lofty trees of Goat Island itself, a 
 number of most agreeable walks have been laid 
 out. 
 
 I know it is the custom to talk of man sinking 
 into insignificance beside the mighty works of 
 nature ; but I beg to differ on this subject. If 
 it is meant, that the works of man become insig- 
 nificant by comparison, I agree to the truth; but 
 I never think human nature so ennobled as when 
 I view the wonders of that world w hich has been 
 ffiven it as an inheritance. The Falls of Nia- 
 gara and other sublime objects make me more 
 feelingly alive to the power and goodness of 
 
103 
 
 the Supreme Being-, but certainly do not cause 
 me to repine at the natural advantages of my 
 species. 
 
 A military road is now being formed along 
 the Canadian banks of the river ; which it' ever 
 finished, and the trees not too much cut away, 
 will afford perhaps the most interesting drive in 
 the known world. Far below the Falls the tor- 
 rent is pent up into narrow limits by lofty woody 
 precipices, so that it rages with a long conti- 
 nuance of rapids, eddies, &c. hollowing out in one 
 place a deep recess, called from its boiling vortex, 
 '' the Devil's Whirlpool." Not far from this hotel 
 is a remarkable sulphur spring, which on being 
 confined in a tub, and a candle applied, the vapour 
 will burn like gas : there is another at the foot 
 of the cataract, but only lately discovered. Seven 
 miles westward of hence, the Welland Canal is 
 now being excavated : it will be thirty-five miles 
 long, is to carry vessels drawing eight feet 
 water, and must rise three hundred and fifty or 
 three hundred and sixty feet between the Lakes 
 Ontario and Erie. In the same direction the 
 present governor of Upper Canada has a house 
 and grounds much in the English cottage style; 
 and from which is an extensive prospect to the 
 northward, over woody flats and the far-spread- 
 ing lake. 
 I was conducted to the highest part of the 
 
101 
 
 small hills, which continue from Queenston to 
 where a tmnulns had been found some years 
 back full of human skeletons; and I saw many 
 bones, but could not trace any remains of a ditch 
 or rampart. A much larg-er pile of skeletons 
 has been cut through in laying out the streets 
 of Columbus Town in Ohio ; and others are re- 
 ported to exist along the banks of the Ohio and 
 Mississippi, near those ancient entrenchments I 
 formerly mentioned. 
 
 Some hisist they arc the remains of a civiUzed 
 people, exterminated by Indian hordes from 
 Asia who fled thence at the time of the Maho- 
 metan conquests ; others consider they belonged 
 to Prince Madoc and his Welsh followers in the 
 twelfth century; many ingenious disquisitions are 
 also to be found in Governor Clhiton's Treatise 
 on American Antiquities : but I believe the only 
 well-authenticated historical facts on which all 
 these pretty superstructures have been raised, are 
 the existence of pyramids in Mexico, and the re- 
 fusal of Montezuma and some of his chiefs to 
 resist Cortez, because he had come from the 
 land of their forefathers. 
 
 What a pity it is, some expert craniologist 
 does not cross the Atlantic to inspect the skulls ! 
 for he could doubtless tell us, whether their 
 possessors had been red, white, black, or tawny 
 men, and so clear up the mystery. 
 
105 
 
 111 the vicinity of the Falls of Niagara are 
 likewise the fields of battle of Chippewa, Lundy 
 Lane, and other sanguinary contests in 1814; 
 at all of which it would seem much animosity 
 was shown, and the drubbing tolerably equally 
 divided. 
 
 So little was it anticipated the American go- 
 vernment would push matters to extremity, that 
 when the war broke out, only one British bat- 
 talion was stationed in the extensive district of 
 Upper Canada ; but General Brock was uni- 
 versally beloved, and when he called on the 
 young men to come and defend the frontier, 
 they flocked with spirit to his standard. That 
 gallant officer was killed in a skirmish, much la- 
 mented by both parties ; and a handsome column 
 has been erected to his memory on Queenston 
 heights, near the spot where he fell. 
 
 As reinforcements arrived, villages were burnt, 
 first on one side of the river, then on the other, 
 each army declaring' they only did it in retaliation; 
 but what officers of either nation have assured 
 me they thought equally disgi-aceful and iiietfi- 
 cient, was the employment of Indians. 
 
 A chief, named Tecumseh, renowned for his 
 superior acquirements and influence, went even 
 to the rocky mountains of the West, persuading 
 the tribes, that now was the opportunity, by as- 
 sisting their Great Red Father, to exterminate 
 
106 
 
 those who wrong-fully held possession of their 
 forests and hunting-grounds. Nearly six thousand 
 warriors were thus induced, I hear, to follow him 
 to the scene of warfare ; and an English officer 
 of rank declared to me, that they were one con- 
 stant source of uneasiness and annoyance, by 
 their habits of insubordination, drunkenness, and 
 contemptuous rejection of rations on the most 
 frivolous pretexts. 
 
 The Americans on their side brought up In- 
 dians from the south ; and a body far more for- 
 midable and equally ferocious, the back-woods- 
 men with their rifles. 
 
 Tecumseh's troops were almost annihilated, 
 through the obstinacy of a British commander, 
 who insisted on their fighting in an open space, 
 instead of availing themselves, as accustomed, 
 of the thickets and trees. The chief himself 
 was shot down after displaying much bravery; 
 and an American told me, the flesh was cut into 
 strips from the body almost before life was ex- 
 tinct, and carried off as trophies of tlie event. 
 ^' But," continued the narrator, "^ those back- 
 woodsmen are worse than the savages they hunt 
 and murder ; they have nothing of the true 
 Yankee breed in them; they are, in short, blood- 
 thirsty Irish." So you see, poor Pat gets accused, 
 let hhn mix with what nation lie mav. 
 
 Lord Cliatluun's famous speech against the 
 
107 
 
 employment of Indians, is said to have made his 
 hearers shudder at the possibility of atrocities, 
 which in those days could only be very limited 
 in extent; but now that the United States contain 
 a population of twelve millions, and women with 
 children are as numerous hundreds of miles in 
 the interior as they then were around Boston or 
 Philadelphia, what man would willingly load his 
 conscience with such a reflection, as that of 
 having been accessary to letting the savages 
 
 loose. 
 
 The Indian's glory consists in killing as many 
 as possible without injury to himself; therefore, 
 he naturally seeks the scalps of women and chil- 
 dren in preference to those of men, because the 
 latter may prove more powerful or more for- 
 tunate than himself in the encounter. 
 
 Yours sincerely, &c. 
 
108 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 NIAGARA TOWN— YORK— LAKE ONTARIO— KINGSTON — RAPIDS 
 OF ST. LAWRENCE — ERROR IN FIXING BOUNDARIES — CAUSES 
 OF DISCONTENT IN UPPER CANADA — MONTREAL — RIVER 
 RICHELIEU— FRENCH CANADIANS— CONSTITUTION OF CANADA. 
 
 St. John's Vdlage, Lower Canada, 
 June 28, 1827. 
 DEAR ■ — , 
 
 The tract on the Niaofara river beino" one of the 
 oldest settlements in Upper Canada^ has a large 
 strip of land in excellent cultivation and g-ood 
 orchards ; but is without any signs of recent im- 
 provement: no acres lately cleared of wood, 
 with the stumps sticking- up to show progressive 
 industry, are there seen ; the houses are usually 
 old, unpainted, wooden ones, and the furniture 
 neither so good or convenient as in the opposite 
 state. 
 
 On the ruins of Fort George, a town of 1200 
 inhabitants has been entirely built since the last 
 war; it is called Niagara, is well hiid out with 
 wide unpaved streets, and the houses being new 
 and painted white, ha\e a cheerful, neat appear- 
 ance. It contains several good inns, and till the 
 troops were removed was very thriving, as no 
 
109 
 
 less a sum than 4000/. per month was paid out 
 by the commissariat department alone. At pre- 
 sent I understood the chief employment to be, 
 a contraband trade in tea and some other ar- 
 ticles, which are cheaper in Canada than the 
 United States. The gardens, orchards, &c. were 
 all destroyed when Fort George was taken. 
 
 On the opposite side of the river, on a small 
 peninsula jutting into the lake, is the old French 
 Fort of Niagara ; in which the strong stone house 
 with a high i)eaked roof, and some other build- 
 ings, have rather a striking effect. It is now 
 abandoned as a fortress, and the soldiers with- 
 drawn to Washington ; for I believe the repub- 
 lican government keeps up a small standing 
 army of 6000 men. 
 
 A steam-boat runs daily from Niagara town 
 to the seat of government at York, a distance of 
 thirty-six miles across the lake ; and returns at 
 night. This latter place is low and unhealthy, 
 but some new military roads have been made 
 from it to Fort Maidon at the western end of 
 Lake Erie, and other important points, so as to 
 keep open the comnmiiication between the set- 
 tlements. 
 
 Other boats run to Kingston at the north-east 
 end of Ontario, and besides passengers carry 
 great quantities of flour secured in barrels. This 
 lake is a hundred and eighty miles by forty. 
 
110 
 
 and in one part seventy broad ; the depth is ge- 
 nerally five hundred feet, the water quite clear 
 and well tasted^ with a great variety of fine fish. 
 It is subject to most -tremendous storms, when 
 the quickness with which the waves follow each 
 other, causes vessels to labour heavily and run 
 much danger : in winter it is never quite frozen 
 over. 
 
 That portion of Canada which forms its north- 
 ern shore appeared to be of a poor, sandy soil, 
 abounding in fir and cedar trees, and scarcely 
 with any houses or cleared spaces. Two or 
 three woody islands are found in its waters, but 
 I believe very few shoals or rocks, and no cur- 
 rent or tide is visible, though after the melting 
 of the snow its surface rises considerably. 
 
 Kingston is in a very pleasing situation on a 
 small hill sloping from a creek, and conunands 
 an extensive prospect. Its streets are straight 
 and wide, though not paved; it has 4000 people, 
 and some of its houses are built of brick or 
 stone. On the opposite side of the creek is the 
 roval dock-yard, with neat ranges of ])uildings 
 lor the shipwrights and workmen, a good resi- 
 dence for the connnissioner, barracks, and some 
 strong batteries and forts. 
 
 One one-hundred-and-ten-gun ship, two se- 
 venty-fours, a frigate, and some other vessels, 
 left agreeable to the terms of the late treaty, are 
 
Ill 
 
 fast decaying; as is a liimdred-and-twenty-gun 
 ship, and several smaller ones in the rival and 
 opposite dock-yard of Sacket's Harbour. The 
 Americans do not keep up any establishment 
 there whatever. 
 
 Soon after quitting Kingston^ the St. Lawrence 
 begins to run rather rapidly between the beau- 
 tiful-looking granite islets which rise above its 
 surface in every direction. The whole scene is 
 highly picturesque^ on account of the wa\dng fo- 
 liage which commonly shades the rocks ; and it 
 is called the passage of the Thousand Islands, 
 though their number amounts to one thousand 
 seven hundred. 
 
 Cultivation did not seem to have made much 
 progress on either side the St. Lawrence, until 
 the steam-boat arrived at the thriving little town 
 of Prescot, where all goods are landed, and put 
 on board flat-bottomed boats. The neat town 
 of Ogdensburg is on the New York side of the 
 river ; which is there one mile and a half wide, 
 rapid, and often tempestuous. 
 
 The banks of the St. Lawrence are thirty or 
 forty feet above the stream ; and along the Ca- 
 nadian side, a good road runs for fifty miles to 
 the village of Cornwall, through a well culti- 
 vated slip of land, from which, perhaps, after all, 
 the rapids can be seen to greatest advantage. 
 But I was determined to try some of them in an 
 
112 
 
 open boat^ and soon found myself past those 
 called the Gallop, which are short and not much 
 agitated. 
 
 The next rapid was two miles in length, and 
 mucli more boisterous ; but the third, named 
 ^' Longue Saut," is by far the grandest and most 
 dangerous. 
 
 The bed of tlie river is there not only much 
 contracted, but divided by an island into two 
 channels, tlu'ough which the water pours on a 
 steep descent for nine miles ; winding among 
 rocks and round ai^rupt turnings, with whirl- 
 pools, and eddies, and waves dashing against 
 each otiier from every direction. 
 
 The boat I was in took just half an hour in 
 shooting down the distance ; but I was assured 
 that 'Moatteaux'' heavily laden would glide tlie 
 nine miles in fifteen or twenty minutes. The 
 commencement of that rapid is bad; but the 
 worst spot is where the Northern or Lost Chan- 
 nel unites with the other near the bottom, ior 
 there the waves continually break over tlie boat 
 and half fill it with water. 
 
 This excursion on the St. Lawrence, in addi- 
 tion to the novel, and somewhat alarming appear- 
 ance of the rapids, is rendered delightful by the 
 green-sward and park-like scenery often witnessed 
 on its banks ; and if the water is tolerably high, 
 there is no dangf-er of an accident with a steady 
 
113 
 
 pilot, who knows tlie deepest channel. The 
 southern or American side of the country does 
 not seem to be much settled yet ; and some of 
 the headlands in that territory were really beau- 
 tiful. 
 
 Cornwall is a neat and thriving- villag-e, with a 
 much better inn than at Prescot, and a steam- 
 boat which navigates lake St. Francis, a part of 
 the river so called from its being spread over a 
 width of seven miles, and diversified with several 
 woody islands. The shores on each side are 
 low, the Glengarry settlement extending about 
 thirty miles along the northern, and the Indian 
 village St. Regis, which is the boundary of the 
 United States, being to the south, with the moun- 
 tains of Lake Champlain appearing in the far 
 distance over it. 
 
 On landing at the village of " Coteau de Lac," 
 I was in Lower Canada -, and will therefore now 
 give you such particulars concerning the state of 
 the upper province, as I have been able to learn 
 from apparently good authority; always pre- 
 mising, that a traveller is generally led into many 
 errors by contradictory and prejudiced informa- 
 tion. 
 
 Upper Canada is supposed at this moment to 
 contain 180,000 people, of which more than one 
 half are emigrants from the United States, many 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 of whom came in witli their parents as early as 
 General Simcoe's proclamation at the end of the 
 revolutionary war. Among the Avhole of these 
 much dissatisfaction prevails,, on account of some 
 late resolutions of the Legislature respecting 
 oaths of allegiance^ oaths of abjuration of other 
 governments, and deeds of naturalization. 
 
 The first they declare they have already taken 
 repeatedly, particularly on three occasions during 
 the last war, but do not care if they take it again. 
 The second oath they object to, because many 
 hold lands in the United States, which they fear 
 to loose, and because Englishmen are allowed 
 to hold property all the world over, without 
 their government interfering: but to be called 
 on to admit themselves aliens is the great griev- 
 ance. They assert, some limitation ought to 
 be made ; such, for instance, as including those 
 only who have entered Canada since the con- 
 clusion of the late war ; for it is absurd, that 
 those who have fought and bled in defence of 
 the frontier, who have received connnissions, aud 
 now hold pensions for wounds, or as half pay, 
 should all at once be told they do not belong to 
 the country. 
 
 They represent it as a trick of the present 
 members of the House of Assembly, who by 
 ilius getting temporary possession of their free- 
 
115 
 
 holds^ will deprive great numbers of the right 
 of voting at the approaching election,, and so 
 ensure their own return. 
 
 Another class of the inhabitants deeply resent 
 some former attempts to provide for a national 
 church by tithes, and fear bills of a similar 
 nature may be again brought forward : they also 
 want to know how the money paid by settlers 
 as fees is appropriated ; viz. twenty-seven dol- 
 lars for every deed of one hundred acres, se- 
 venty-five dollars for two hundred acres, and so 
 in proportion ; and affirm positively, that the 
 present regulations respecting grants of land 
 occasion much fraud, and great detriment to 
 the colony. 
 
 I should imagine the greatest evil to be, the 
 total separation which I hear exists between 
 the various people who compose the scanty po- 
 pulation. Thus the Americans, Scotch, English, 
 and some Dutch and Germans have no other 
 interest in common than thwarting each other 
 as much as possible. 
 
 Two Pennsylvanian farmers who have been 
 travelling through the Avestern countries appa- 
 rently on a mission of inspection, assured me 
 that a finer tract of land could not be found in 
 all America than that part of Upper Canada, 
 which extends along the northern shore of Lake 
 Erie ; but that in the one or two comfortable 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 villages they found there, the occupiers seemed 
 quite satisfied with what they then had, without 
 any attempts being' made at improvement. 
 
 A Canadian Land Company has lately been 
 formed in Great Britain, but I believe sufficient 
 time has not yet elapsed to judge of the progress 
 it is likely to make, or whether the terms will 
 be more favourable than tliose of the Holland 
 Company in the state of New York. A Scotch 
 gentleman is the resident agent. 
 
 1 must not omit renrarking on the extraordinary 
 oversight which the British conmiissioners ap- 
 pointed to fix the boundary line of the two nations, 
 have committed on the St. Lawrence. By hav- 
 ing ceded the majority of islands below Prescot, 
 the United States Government has the means 
 of erecting batteries on both sides the oidy na- 
 vigable channel ; and in other places, the lueadth 
 of the river has been so equally divided, and the 
 depth of water so little considered, that scarcely 
 six inches draught can float along the British half. 
 
 The American commissioners knew personally 
 the localities and navigation of the river ; and the 
 advantage they gained is not of such trivial im- 
 portance as may at first appear ; for alreadv the 
 republicans talk of the injnstice of British subjects 
 navigating their side of the St. Lawrence, unless 
 a i'ree passage is allowed to the citizens of the 
 United States, as far as Montreal,[Quebcc, and 
 
117 : 
 
 the Ocean. This is one strong- reason why 
 canals are now being cut,, or recommended in 
 the Canadas, to avoid all parts impeded by 
 rapids, or within the territory of New York. 
 
 From " Couteau de Lac" to the village and 
 rapids of Cedars, the road passes along a well- 
 cultivated country, where the language spoken 
 is a French patois ; and by a contented healthy- 
 looking peasantry, who are evidently resolved to 
 leave things in the same state as their fathers 
 left them. At the foot of the Cascade Rapids, the 
 great river Ottawa joins its muddy stream to the 
 transparent waters of the St. Lawrence ; but 
 they flow some distance before mingling together. 
 
 Another steam-boat stationed at that pointy 
 conveys travellers to the village and rapids of 
 ^' La Chine," seven miles from Montreal, having 
 run over a part of the river called Lake '' St. Lewis.' 
 
 Montreal is situated below all the rapids which 
 impede the navigation of the St. Lawrence ; and 
 amid a rich and beautiful scene of cultivation, 
 which extends to a distance unusual in America, 
 and proves it to be an old established settlement. 
 The city has narrow streets stretching a consi- 
 derable distance along the river, but neither well 
 cleaned nor well paved; the houses are generally 
 small, but of stone, and covered with tin roofs, 
 to prevent accidents by fire, which reflects the 
 sun's rays in a most painful manner. 
 
118 
 
 To the northward of the town is a high hill ; 
 and several handsome country houses are scat- 
 tered about in the vicinity. The churches and 
 monasteries are not remarkable for architecture ; 
 but a fine cathedral is now being built by the 
 catholics to supersede the ancient one. 
 
 The court-house and jail are substantial build- 
 ings, with a good parade for the garrison behind 
 the latter ; a monument to Nelson, surmounted 
 by his statue, is in tolerable taste ; and there is 
 also a theatre, a circus, and some barracks. The 
 markets are abundant, and many of the shops 
 well supplied with goods, arranged with consi- 
 derable taste. The hotels are excellent. 
 
 I know no city where a more convenient or 
 handsome quay might be constructed, as a suffi- 
 cient space has been left along the St. Lawrence, 
 which is there two miles across ; but the road at 
 present is little better than a mass of filth, from 
 one end to the other ; in short, the town not 
 being incoj'porated, has no competent authorities; 
 and as the French inhabitants resolutely oppose 
 all innovations or injprovements, it has not made 
 that progress which its wealth and population of 
 25,000 residents would seem to warrant. 
 
 A small island just below Montreal, and ap- 
 propriated to the ordnance department, is de- 
 lightfully shaded with trees, and laid out in walks, 
 drives, &.c. That charming spot used, until very 
 
119 
 
 recently, to be the favourite resort of all such 
 respectable inhabitants as could hire a boat ; but 
 the major commanding- has now offended the 
 whole neighbourhood, by restricting- the walk to 
 those who may obtain his permission. It can 
 scarcely be called fortified, as there are only two 
 breastworks towards the river. 
 
 Among other novelties an order has lately 
 arrived from the Master-General of the ordnance 
 in London, forbidding officers of the engineers 
 from complying with any requisitions of the local 
 government, respecting improvements, maps^ 
 surveys, &c. unless they judge their time and 
 duties will not be too much interfered with. This 
 is giving a most comfortable degree of latitude 
 to the corps, and I should imagine is an infringe- 
 ment on the powers vested in the king's repre- 
 sentative in Canada. 
 
 A steam-boat runs down to Quebec in twenty- 
 four hours, and ])ack in thirty-six ; but you have 
 so often read accounts of that city, its beautiful 
 situation, fortifications, and neighbouring falls of 
 Montmorenci and Chaudier, that I can have no 
 excuse for writing on the subject. 
 
 A class of men, styled *^Soyageurs," engaged 
 in the lumber or timber trade, deserve particular 
 notice ; because a certain degree of eclat has 
 long been attached to the performance of one or 
 more of those dangerous voyages ; so that few 
 
120 
 
 young Canadians of the lower ranks settle in life 
 before they can boast of the perils they have 
 thus encountered. 
 
 By drinking large quantities of spirits they 
 make their bodies almost callous to the snow, 
 frost, water, and scorching heat of these climates ; 
 but their constitutions are undermined, and it is 
 rare for one to arrive at the age of fifty : the oc- 
 cupation behig one routine of fatigue, idleness, 
 privations, debauchery, and lawlessness. 
 
 What these men will undergo as long as they 
 have hope is almost incredible ; but with the 
 French character of great bravery and sudden 
 panics, they quickly despond when entangled in 
 the rapids, and instead of pulling at the oar with 
 vigour, empty the brandy-bottles : so also, if 
 threatened with famine and want of provisions, 
 all authority and obedience is at an end, and they 
 devour or waste what little is left. 
 
 Few rafts arrive at Quebec in an uninjured 
 state, and a great many are totally destroyed ; 
 so that taking all these things into consideration, 
 a Canadian gentleman I became acquainted Avith, 
 who is much attached to his native province, in- 
 sists that the lumber trade, instead of being ad- 
 vantageous to the inhabitants, is the great cause 
 why they make such little progress in modern 
 arts and inventions. 
 
 The large village " La Prairie" is nine miles 
 
121 
 
 south of Montreal ; and the current runs so 
 rapidly, that the steam-boat croi§ses slowly enough ; 
 T was two hours making the passage. The level 
 country from thence to the river Richelieu^ is 
 entirely cleared and cultivated ; and also as far 
 down as Fort Sorel. The village of Chamble is 
 agreeably situated on a bay of the Richelieu, and 
 at the foot of some dangerous rapids, which are 
 the sole obstacle to the navigation of that river 
 for the largest vessels, from the farthest pai'ts of 
 Lake Champlain to the sea. Opposite the vil- 
 lage is a large extent of cultivation, and some 
 rocky isolated mountains of no great extent, but 
 forming a fine background. 
 
 An ancient square fortress, built by tlie French, 
 with strong stone walls, is still existing at Cham- 
 ble in tolerable repair, and has more the ap- 
 pearance of a baronial castle than any buildhig 
 T have seen in America. Not far from it are 
 some cavalry barracks, occupied in 1814 by a 
 British regiment of dragoons ; and a few miles 
 beyond it is the village of St. John's, from whence 
 the Champlain steam-boat takes its departure, 
 and where I have found a comfortable inn. 
 
 This is the limit of cultivation on this side ; as 
 the British frontier post called " Isle aux Noix'' 
 is only twelve miles further up the stream. 
 
 The French Canadians seem a good humoured 
 happy race ; are of the catholic religion ; obstinately 
 
122 
 
 averse to any and every change ; and, I am told, 
 very generally ignorant of reading and writing. 
 Even the mode of dress does not appear to have 
 undergone much alteration ; nor could it be 
 wished that the girls, who have often fine dark 
 eyes and pretty features, should discard their 
 present large brimmed straw-hat, placed very 
 backward on one side of their heads. 
 
 In agriculture they use the old heavy plough ; 
 of rotation in crops they are ignorant — sowing 
 wheat year after year till the ground becomes 
 unproductive, when they let it lie fallow; of 
 manure they either do not know the use, or are 
 too indolent to apply it ; and of turnips none are 
 cultivated either here or in the United States, 
 except in gardens. The Canadian horses are 
 small and ill-looking, but hardy. 
 
 The sledges driven in winter are so low and 
 badly contrived, that the front pushes on the 
 snow till the accumulation makes a great resist- 
 ance ; when the exertions of the horses pull the 
 machine over the heap, which it thus presses 
 into a solid mass. So the Canadian roads, dur- 
 ing frost, are compared to waves of two feet 
 high, which have suddenly been congealed. 
 
 A few winters ago, three sledges were made 
 and driven about the streets of Montreal, to 
 overcome, if possible, the prejudices of the 
 people; one like those commonly used, a second 
 
123 
 
 similar to the excellent ones of the United States, 
 and a third endeavouring to^iite the two ex- 
 tremes. 
 
 On the market days the farmers gazed and 
 admired ; acknowledged tlie advantage of having 
 two smooth tracks like a rail-road, instead of 
 the former jolting hillocks, and praised the in- 
 vention. But on being desired to adopt the 
 improved machine, Montreal was left without 
 fire-wood or provisions, as nobody would come 
 to the town except in the old way. 
 
 Each of the Canadas has its upper and lower 
 House of Assembly; the members of which are 
 elected by the people^ and have great privileges, 
 such as raising the monies necessary for local 
 expenses, making laws, &c. which are laid before 
 the governor, for his approval or rejection ; and 
 the final appeal is to the ministry in London. 
 
 Alarge annual sum has been expended hitherto 
 by the British government in gifts and presents 
 to the Indians, or rather in affording those sa- 
 vages an opportunity of getting drunk for ten 
 days or a fortnight. This, with the fortifications, 
 garrisons, and various other items, has caused 
 an outlay to the Mother Country, of above one 
 million per annum. 
 
 That they are fine provinces, capable of vast 
 improvements, and may some day or other be- 
 come important, I do not deny ; but why they 
 
124 
 
 should at this moment be considered of so much 
 value^ I really ci^ot imagine. As an outlet to 
 our surplus population, they have as yet been of 
 no benefit^ or wliy has not the number of their 
 inhabitants increased in proportion^ or the marks 
 of progressive industry become more apparent ? 
 Particularly in Upper Canada_, w^hich possesses 
 the more temperate climate, and perhaps on the 
 whole the better soil. 
 
 In that province I have heard a few persons 
 talk wildly of forming a republic, independent of 
 England and the United States ; whereas it is 
 clear, that with their present trifling resources,, 
 they must either be a colony of Britain, or a part 
 of the Federation. In Lower Canada there exists 
 an hereditary hatred to the people of the Union ; 
 nor would those who by conmiercial intercourse 
 have become acquainted with the severe colonial 
 laws now enforced by France in her West India 
 Islands, at all relish the idea of being ruled by 
 that power. 
 
 Some Canadian gentlemen once told me, they 
 believed the surest way of putting an end to all 
 the existing disputes and animosities would be 
 for Great Britain to threaten a total abandonment 
 of the two provinces, leaving them to their own 
 resources and management. 
 
 Of one thing I am very certain, that to send 
 out emigrants to these countries, who have been 
 
125 
 
 broug-ht up in the hot-bed factories of cotton or 
 woollen ; give theui land anc^an axe_, and say, 
 " there — cut avvay^ work, and Ijecome your own 
 master and landlord/' must appear little better 
 than cruel irony to those who have seen what an 
 uncleared wilderness is. 
 
 In many instances the poor creatures have 
 dragged through that period when provisions and 
 other assistance are allowed l)y government^ and 
 then have taken the first opportunity of selling 
 their allotment of ground to some richer neigh- 
 bour, and abandon the country. 
 
 Yours truly, &c. 
 
126 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 LAKE CHAMPLAIN — IRISH EMIGRANTS' — PLATTSBURG — SIR G, 
 PREVOST — LAKE GEORGE — MASSACRE BY THE FRENCH IN 
 1757— SARATOGA— REFLECTIONS— CLASS OF EMIGRANTS Who 
 SUCCEED BEST. 
 
 Saratoga, July 10, 1827. 
 DEAR , 
 
 The steam-boat in which I left St. John's, was 
 neatly fitted up, and the charge of conveyance 
 one hundred and fifty miles, with three well- 
 supplied meals was twenty-five shillings, but 
 the time occupied in running that distance was 
 uselessly protracted to twenty-four hours. 
 
 The river Richelieu is in general about half a 
 mile wide, and the banks on both sides when 
 near the frontiers are covered with thick woods. 
 At the " Isle aux Noix " the British have a 
 small dock-yard, and a strong square fort is 
 being constructed. The position is excellent, 
 as it completely commands the navigation ; but 
 the soil is of so loose and swampy a nature, as 
 scarcely to bear the weight of the ramparts, 
 and I should fear it will prove an unhealthy 
 aguisli post. 
 
127 
 
 The line of demarcation between the two na- 
 tions is the 45° of latitude, and at that point a 
 strong stone fortress was erected by the Ame- 
 ricans very recently, but being found a few 
 yards within the British territory, is now aban- 
 doned. 
 
 We had with us as passengers on the fore- 
 castle a great many poor Irish ; and I understood 
 the boat was always crammed with them, on 
 every voyage from Canada to the United States. 
 They told me on being questioned, it was their 
 intention to proceed to New York, and there 
 petition the English Consul to ship them back 
 to Europe. 
 
 I suggested, that Montreal or Quebec, being 
 British towns, would have answered their pur- 
 pose better, and been nearer at hand ; but they 
 did not like Canada, was the reply, so they got 
 out of it as fast as possible. Some gentlemen 
 on board suggested, that as most probably these 
 people had been sent out at the government's 
 expense, there was a very natural objection to 
 sending them back again in the same manner, 
 consequently, they went to a city where the 
 fact could not be so easily ascertained. 
 
 Whether this trick is often practised I of 
 course cannot pretend to form an opinion ; but 
 it in some measure accounts for so many Irish 
 beggars being seen in the streets of Albany, 
 and is worth while enquiring into. 
 
128 
 
 Lake Champlain at its commencement is much 
 broken by islands, some of large extent, others 
 mere rocks_, but all of them covered with timber. 
 The village bearing the same name is seen to 
 the right, and the mountains of Vermont rising 
 2000 feet, form a fine boundary to the upper 
 end of the water. The bustling little town of 
 Plattsburg is forty miles south of St. John's 
 village, and was rendered remarkable in 1814 
 by our vessels being defeated, and by Sir George 
 Prevost fairly running away at the head of one 
 thousand three hundred men ; or as an English 
 colonel expresses himself, *^We were long 
 enough in reaching Plattsburg, but we got back 
 again in one-third of the time." 
 
 In regard to the naval victory, an American 
 officer who served there says, the contest was 
 long doubtful, and even unfavourable to them at 
 one time, owing to a brig having quitted her 
 position near the Commodore : but a fortunate 
 manoeuvre, and consequent sinking of a British 
 vessel, gave such a turn to the affair as insured 
 them success. " And then," continued lie, *' we 
 had the unexpected satisfaction of seeing Ge- 
 neral Prevost making a hasty retreat, and long 
 puzzled ourselves witli conjectures, as to the 
 cause of his so sudden change in resolutions." 
 
 It would seem that Sir George's great failing 
 was indecision and want of moral courage ; for 
 as to personal bravery, his bitterest accusers 
 
129 
 
 admit he was seldom excelled. One gentleman 
 told me, that he had himself seen General Pre- 
 vostatthe attack on Sacket's Harbour, when the 
 landing' party began to waver, jump on the beach 
 
 and cry, '^ Grenadiers of the regiment, form 
 
 yourselves on me ! " then lead them to the charge^ 
 and take possession of the place. After this gal- 
 lant exploit however, his evil genius prevailed ; 
 and looking for some minutes stedfastly at the 
 surrounding forest, he ordered an immediate 
 retreat. 
 
 At the back of Plattsburg commences a long 
 range of hills, running south, which abound in va- 
 luable iron ore, and employ many people. There 
 also, the Lake begins to expand into a surface 
 seven or eight miles wide ; and the shores are not 
 only delightfully undulating, but have a thriving 
 appearance of progressive industry and cultiva- 
 tion. Port Kent and other little hamlets line the 
 western shore ; while the handsome town of Bur- 
 lington adds beauty to the other, many of the 
 houses being large, and the population almost 
 3000. From thence the passage up the lake 
 continually improves ; ' the mountains almost 
 touch the water, only leaving at their base a 
 succession of cultivated knolls and slopes, vary- 
 ing in height from 100 to 300 feet. It was the 
 most lovely scene I had witnessed on my tour. 
 
 At Crown Point the French had a strong fort, 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 and another at Ticonderoga ; where an outlet 
 from Lake George aflfords the traveller an oppor- 
 tunity, if he chooses, by going round some rapids 
 of two miles, to sail over that beautiful sheet of 
 water, and so pass to Saratoga ; instead of con- 
 tinuing with the steam-boat up a deep creek to 
 the village of Whitehall, and thence by the public 
 coach or canal to the city of Albany. 
 
 Lake George is the most celebrated in North 
 America for its picturesque beauties. Its ex- 
 treme length is thirty-six miles ; its width varies 
 greatly, behig sometimes narrowed into a mere 
 river, by the near approach of abrupt mountains 
 and a long projecting headland, and then expand- 
 ing into a surface of several miles, dotted with 
 islands. The water is perfectly clea)*, and said 
 to be often sixty fathoms deep. The fish are 
 abundant, as by law no nets are allowed to be 
 used ; and there are great numbers of green 
 turtle, from three to thirty pounds in weight, 
 whose flesh is excellent, but the shell too soft 
 and thin for making combs or other similar 
 purposes. 
 
 It is a complete mountain lake, surrounded on 
 every side by steeply rising hills of 800 or 1200 
 feet in height, which are covered with pines and 
 other wood for building and fuel. The soil in its 
 vicinity is a poor sand, or rock, so that the farms 
 are neither numerous or of mucli value ; and the 
 
131 
 
 forest not only harbours a few panthers and 
 wolves_, but is noted for rattle-snakes. 
 
 I cannot compare Lake George to those of 
 Cumberland and Westmoreland, in precipitous 
 crags, deep glens of shady oaks and watered by 
 a cascade, in parks, cultivation, or the towering- 
 peaks of a mountainous outline ; but it is, never- 
 theless, a lovely scene, which will aiford ample 
 gratification to every visitor. 
 
 The village of Caldwell, which is delightfully 
 situated at the southern or upper end of the 
 water, contains several inns, one of which is 
 large and comfortable ; with a steam-boat plying 
 daily, during the summer seasons, to Ticonde- 
 roga and back again. I could pass a month or 
 six weeks much more agreeably there, than in 
 the fashionable town where I now am. 
 
 On a small hill above Caldwell are the ruins 
 of Fort George, built by the English as a frontier 
 post, when that of William Henry, a few hundred 
 yards to the westward, was destroyed by the 
 French in 1757. This conquest was attended 
 by one of the most disgraceful transactions of 
 any nation on record ; and such was the horror 
 excited, that notwithstanding the lapse of time, 
 and various changes among the inhabitants, the 
 following tradition is still kept up in the vicinity, 
 as well as a strong hatred towards the French. 
 
 The Marquis Montcalm, Governor of Canada, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 with 7000 French troops, and rather under 4000 
 Indians and colonists, suddenly invested the in- 
 trenchment called William Henry, before it was 
 in a proper state for defence ; but the spirited 
 commander, a Colonel Monroe, repulsed every 
 assault during six days ; when, having burst his 
 guns, expended his ammunition, and been twice 
 refused assistance by General Webb, who was 
 only fourteen miles oft' with a well-disciplined 
 army of 6000 men, the fort was surrendered on 
 condition of protection to the garrison, and a 
 French escort to the nearest English post. 
 
 By this agreement, nearly 2000 persons, sol- 
 diers, peasants, women and children, were 
 marched out unarmed ; but before they had pro- 
 ceeded a quarter of a mile, an indiscriminate 
 massacre, with circumstances of unprecedented 
 barbarity, was commenced. Monroe rushed back 
 to the Marquis, and upbraided his treachery, 
 insisting that the escort ought to be comj)elled 
 to interfere ; but Montcalm declared himself and 
 troops were afraid the Indians might attack 
 them also. 
 
 After much expostulation and entreatv, with 
 remarks on the French soldiers being twice as 
 numerous as their savage allies, their general 
 was absolutely shamed into exertions ; but it 
 was almost too late, 1500 had already been 
 scalped. 
 
133 
 
 Montcalm, in 1759, died at the head of his 
 troops, bravely defending- Quebec against Ge- 
 neral Wolfe. But, after the above atrocious 
 action, he was undeserving of so gallant a fate, 
 and ought rather to have been hanged at the 
 gate of that city. The American novelist, Mr. 
 Cooper, has given an interesting and faithful 
 account of the above massacre, with descrip- 
 tions of the cowardly nature of Indian warfare, 
 in his work called '' The Last of the Mohicans." 
 
 It is said that General Webb was never pun- 
 ished for his refusal to assist Colonel Monroe 
 and his garrison, because the immense distance 
 between the colonies and the mother country 
 precluded the government from learning the 
 truth. This and many similar instances are ad- 
 duced, to show that the very best of men are 
 unfit to rule over any country which is removed 
 several thousand miles from them. 
 
 The land between Lake George and Saratoga 
 is generally sandy, and covered with pine forests; 
 but it is broken into hill and dale, and a ridge of 
 low mountains bounds the western prospect. At 
 the large village of Glenn's Falls, on the Hud- 
 son, that river has a very picturesque appear- 
 ance, for its dark lime rocks are worn into various 
 shapes and fissures, over which the water forms 
 a highly beautiful cascade of forty feet. 
 
 The existence of several ruinous-looking saw- 
 
134 
 
 mills and a dam^ with an old wooden bridge,, and 
 the want of trees^ have tended to destroy much 
 of the romantic nature of this scene ; but it forms, 
 with Baker's Falls, three miles lower down, where 
 the Hudson rushes down a precipice of seventy- 
 six feetj a most delightful morning's excursion 
 from this place. 
 
 To those who have time and inclination for 
 rambles, tlie banks of the Hudson, for many 
 leagues above Glenn's Falls, winding its devious 
 way amid mountains and opposing rocks, will 
 atford a continual variety of solitary and charm- 
 ing scenes. The river continues eighty or a 
 hundred yards wide, a very long distance, with 
 occasional cascades and rapid descents ; and, 
 if my hiformation is correct, the best shooting 
 country in the State of New York is to be foimd 
 among the sources of that great stream. 
 
 Saratoga has become, within the last ten years, 
 the Cheltenham or Buxton of the United States, 
 on account of a strongly efiervescing saline 
 spring, the waters of which are by no means 
 unpleasant to drink, and are thought highly sa- 
 lutary from the cpiantity of fixed air they contain. 
 
 The spot was disclosed to the governor by an 
 Indian, as much as seventy years ago, and the 
 spring then used was resyerved for public accom- 
 modation, when the land was granted to set- 
 tlers ; but the superior quality of the newer-found 
 
135 
 
 sources, particularly that called Congress Water, 
 has thrown the ancient one into disrepute, and 
 none drink at it, except those who do not wish 
 to pay for the privilege. 
 
 Saratoga is laid out in one long wide street, 
 which has a most cheerful appearance ; for 
 though all the houses, with one single excep- 
 tion, are built of wood, yet, being neatly painted, 
 and having columns and verandas, overgrown 
 with woodbine, clematis, &c., the whole town is 
 pleasing and gay. Besides several dozen board- 
 ing and lodging-houses, inns, &c., there are three 
 hotels on the most extensive scale, each having 
 accommodation for nearly three hundred visitors, 
 in addition to baths and billiard tables. The 
 furniture and fitting up is handsome, the tables 
 well supplied, and wines, with all other luxnries, 
 may be had on calling for. 
 
 The proprietors of these hotels take it by turns 
 to give nightly balls, with good bands of music 
 stationed in the gardens ; and they enforce such 
 excellent regulations, by turning any person out 
 of the three houses, who misconducts himself in 
 either, that, although the company consists of 
 all classes, very few quarrels take place. 
 
 The season this year is uncommonly backward, 
 by reason of the cold weather in May, and there- 
 fore I have not seen Saratoga in all its glory of 
 crowds and fashion ; which I lament exceedingly. 
 
13G 
 
 because families from every part of the Union, 
 even from New Orleans, three thousand miles 
 off, are said to frequent its healing waters. 
 
 The roads about this neighbourhood are sandy, 
 the country poor but undulating ; and among 
 the many agreeable rides, is that to the charm- 
 ing little lake of Saratoga, where an unexpected 
 scene of rich farms and pastoral beauty is dis- 
 played. A few miles further, is the neat village 
 of Ballston, with some large handsome hotels for 
 visitors to the sprhigs of that place. The soil 
 about there is richer, and has evidently been 
 much longer under cultivation ; but the houses 
 are often unpainted, and have not that clean, 
 comfortable appearance of the newer settle- 
 ments to the west. One reason given me was, 
 that the occupiers were generally tenants in- 
 stead of owners, the farms in that quarter being 
 very extensive. The hire of a labourer, they told 
 me, was fifteen shillings a-week, besides meals. 
 
 Another excursion, and very naturally a fa- 
 vourite one with the American public, is to the 
 remains of Fort Edward, and thence to Bemiss 
 Heights, where, on October 17, 1777, General 
 Burgoyne and a British army of 6000 men, were 
 compelled to surrender to General Gates. A 
 road from thence runs along the side of the 
 Hudson to Waterford, a fine village, and so on 
 to the Cohoes Falls, and Albany. 
 
137 
 
 I much fear this will be the last letter I shall 
 be able to send you from America^ at least as 
 far as regards the continuance of my tour, for 
 circumstances seem likely to prevent my excur- 
 sion from Albany to Boston, and thence through 
 Hartford to New York. 
 
 I regret this disappointment the more, because 
 I am assured the towns and scenery, in both 
 Massachusetts and Connecticut, are well worth 
 a visit ; and that in the villages, I should often 
 observe the two or three shady trees planted on 
 the parish green, as used so commonly to be the 
 case in England before the Inclosure Act. 
 
 Allow me to fill up this paper by indulging in 
 a few reflections, which, after the many hundred 
 miles I have passed over, and the gratification 
 and kindness I have experienced, may, I think_, 
 be deemed pardonable, if not absoluteh called 
 for. 
 
 In the United States, the best feelinofs of the 
 heart and the understanding are constantly called 
 into play, by the sight of a well-fed, well-clothed, 
 industrious people, without beggary, or fears of 
 having too large a family ; and never did I feel 
 so proud of being an Englishman, as while 
 travelling through the vast territories of this 
 republic. 
 
 True, it is no longer a part of the British em- 
 pire ; but it was an English colony, and it is, in 
 
138 
 
 language^ manners, dress, customs, laws, almost 
 government, a second England. No similar ex- 
 ample exists in history. Where are the colonies 
 of the Egyptians and Phoenicians, of Greece and 
 of Rome ? 
 
 Modern nations may, perhaps, dispute as to 
 which language and code of laws most nearly 
 resemble those of the ancients. But in what part 
 of the world do those people still exist ? Not in 
 Greece ; not in Italy ; for, even in language, the 
 Spanish more nearly approaches the pure Latin 
 than the present dialects of either Rome or 
 Tuscany. 
 
 If Britain shall follow the law of nations, and, 
 like all other powerftd dominions, shall sink into 
 insignificance and ruin, she will still live in a por- 
 tion of America as large as half Europe. Pro- 
 bably she will appear also in the vast settlements 
 of New Holland, which Avill, no doubt, likewise 
 free themselves from the tutelage of a govern- 
 ment situated on the other side of the globe. 
 
 And does the mother country really lose, by 
 her colonies becoming sufficiently rich and pow- 
 erful to declare themselves iiidepeudent? I 
 believe such ideas are becoming very generally 
 exploded ! Her pride is wounded, her power 
 is somewhat humiliated ; and human nature will 
 not tolerate such injuries witliout a struefirle. 
 But when time has obliterated those causes of 
 
139 
 
 animosity, who is it that loses by the change ? 
 Those only who have enjoyed the patronage of 
 making governors, commandants, judges, and the 
 nnmerous placemen of a colonial government. 
 
 It is said that not a single British colony pays 
 its expenses ! Now let any man look back to 
 what was tlie annnal expenditure in this country, 
 and call to mind the necessary increase which 
 must have taken place, had we preserved the 
 territory ; and I think he will acknowledge, that 
 by paying their own fleets and armies and go- 
 vernment, and trading with our ports to the 
 amount of many millions a-year, these worthy 
 citizens have conferred a most important benefit 
 on England. 
 
 In regard to liberty of person and security of 
 property, these republicans are not one jot 
 better off than ourselves in Britain : each change 
 of President creates great civil dissensions, 
 which must increase in proportion to the number 
 of w^ealthy and powerful candidates ; an evil 
 avoided by onr having an hereditary dynasty. 
 But what seems strange, is the complaint of 
 many here, that the election by ballot is found 
 to be quite as open to brikery and corruption 
 as our '^ viva voce" system. 
 
 Three great advantages the inhabitants of the 
 Union do certainly enjoy over us; they have no 
 excise, no tithes, and no game laws. All car- 
 
140 
 
 penters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, mechanics, 
 labourers, in short all who g-et a livelihood by the 
 work of their ow n hands (except sedentary manu- 
 facturers) will bring up a large family here with 
 more facility and comfort than in England ; but 
 farmers who have been renting to the amount 
 of 150/. or 200/. a-year, and all those who have 
 been more accustomed to superintend and di- 
 rect others than work themselves, will find their 
 comforts very seriously lessened by emigration. 
 
 1 have met with two or three men grumbling — 
 discontented and eager to get back ; because, in- 
 stead of being able to mount their hacks, and ride 
 about their fields to see all was right, as they used 
 to do when leaseholders in England, they must 
 now strip off their coats, and join in the work of 
 the few labourers they have been lucky enough 
 to hire, or else not a spade or a pitchfork will 
 be moved. 
 
 " Those cursed fellows,'^ continued the com- 
 plainants, " call themselves helpers — not ser- 
 vants ; and devilish little they do help us, for 
 we have to load most of our carts ourselves." 
 
 With respect to the means this country pos- 
 sesses, of providing during any long period for 
 the rapidly-increasing population which is pour- 
 ing in from all sides, a gentleman who has been 
 surveying a line of road to the Pacific, informs 
 me that the general character of the land be- 
 
141 
 
 yond the Missouri is sterile ; and lie does not 
 think the central parts of the Continent can ever 
 be thickly peopled: but beyond the great west- 
 ern mountains a fruitful tract exists^ A^hi(•h he 
 supposes will be quickly overspread by the flou- 
 rishing settlements on Columbia river. 
 
 The great State of New York has now about 
 two millions of inhabitants,, but could easily 
 maintain five or six times that number; other 
 states may possibly be as productive, and of 
 equal territory ; but after all^ it is idle perhaps 
 to write on a subject so dependent on political 
 events ; for so various^ and in many cases oppo- 
 site, are the interests of the different members of 
 this Federation, that the Union hangs by a mere 
 thread ; and I firmly believe it is the fear of their 
 slaves alone which has prevented the Southern 
 States from separating themselves before this. 
 
 With the sincere wish that the wide waters of 
 the Atlantic may prove a sufficient barrier be- 
 tween the jealousies of the two kindred nations, 
 
 I remain. 
 
 Yours very truly, ^c. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 JAMES WHITING, PRINTUn, BBAUFORT HOUSK, STRAND,